Fabrication and Characterization of an Eco-friendly Biodegradable Epoxy/Chitosan Composites

Successful incorporation of chitosan (crustaceous shells) is accomplished by incorporating these materials (chitosan) into an epoxy matrix and followed by testing of mechanical properties such as tensile strength, impact resistance, hardness and flexural strength. Using test list it is clearly observed that the optimized percentage of chitosan into epoxy is 15% which has got higher ultimate tensile strength and hardness. Decrease in impact resistance and flexural strength was observed with the addition of chitosan particles. The reason could be inherent properties of chitosan which are not known to strengthen the matrix. The Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) analysis of fracture surface of tensile specimen has shown agglomeration of chitosan particle and high particle size of chitosan (80-200μm).