Liquefied banana pseudo stem-based epoxy composites: Incorporation of phenol derivative and its characterization

A typical method of synthesizing epoxy composites is to incorporate diglycidyl ether of bisphenol-A (DGEBA) into a bio-based epoxy resin. In this strategy, pure liquefied biomass is typically used as feedstock and is blended with DGEBA. Liquefied banana pseudo stem (LBPS), a bio-based active mixture obtained by liquefaction with phenol as the solvent, was directly utilized without depuration or additional DGEBA to develop a composite blend epoxy resin (cb-LBPSER). The blending process based on an incorporation of phenol-based epoxy resin (PER) was investigated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, gel permeation chromatography , and thermogravimetric analysis . The cb-LBPSER presented a lower molecular weight and an improvement of 38.45% for shear strength than the pure LBPS-based epoxy resin (LBPSER). Also, the cured cb-LBPSER adhesive displayed a thermal stability comparable to that of PER. In addition, the curing behaviour, the activation energy , and the glass transition temperature were analyzed by diffrential scanning calorimetry and dynamic mechanical analysis . The blend bio-based epoxy composites exhibited an improved performance, confirming its potential as a suitable alternative to commercial PER.