Evaluation of Treatment Performance of Different Methods on Wheat Straw Composites

The objective of this research is to evaluate the impact of both traditional and innovative techniques on the qualities of wheat straw, as well as the mechanical performance of epoxy composites which use wheat straw as a reinforcing material. Two different methods were used for treatment: Alkali treatment (AlT) was carried out using NaOH at concentration of 5% w/v for 1 hour at 25°C, Microwave irradiation (MwT) aws performed at 300 W for 20 minutes. It was found that Alkali and microwave treatment both changed the surface morphology of wheat straw. Microwave treatment provided further improvement in the mechanical properties of the composite materials, enabling a 37% increase in tensile strength and 62% increase in flexural strength. Microwave reclamation, which is cleaner and performs better than chemical reclamation, shows promising performance for more sensitive material application areas.