Transforming textile waste: Enhancing thermal and water uptake properties of hybrid composites with multi-walled carbon nanotubes

Abstract

Underestimating the requirement to recycle and use textile waste has caused environmental difficulties. Researchers have discovered several techniques to reuse and recycle textile waste. This has offered a huge possibility for designing composite materials with different reinforcements. This research investigated how multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) change the thermal and water-absorbing properties of a material made from textile waste and basalt fibres. Six different composite systems were fabricated in this study using the moulding technique. Fabricated specimens were analysed using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) (ASTM E1131), dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) (ASTM D7028), and a water uptake test (ASTM D5229). TGA results reveal that hybridisation and MWCNT improve the degradation temperature by 8.2% and 8.7%, respectively. The DMA test shows an 8.3% and 8.8% increase in the storage modulus due to fibre hybridisation and MWCNT addition. Furthermore, hybridisation and MWCNT improve water absorption by 36.2% and 46.2%, respectively. In conclusion, incorporating MWCNT strengthens the hybrid composite's thermal and moisture absorption properties.