Viscoelastic and anticorrosive properties of waste polyethene coated Kota stone slurry reinforced epoxy composites

The current study assesses the potential of Kota stone dust as a filler material in an epoxy matrix. The Kota stone industry in Rajasthan, India, generates an estimated 10 to 12 million tons of Kota stone slurry and dust annually. The present research describes the hand lay-up technique used to fabricate an epoxy-based composite that incorporates activated Kota stone dust as a filler material. The main objective of this reason is to synthesize hybrid filler by combining two waste materials, specifically by coating the activated Kota stone slurry with the metastable phase of waste polyethylene (MSP). Kota stone slurry (KSS) was activated through both mechanical and chemical methods. Various analytical techniques, including FTIR, FE-SEM, EDX, BET, and XRD, were employed to characterize the hybrid filler and the corresponding reinforced epoxy composites. The evaluation of the rheological behavior of both raw and hybrid filler-reinforced epoxy composites facilitated a deeper understanding of the influence of the hydrocarbon (waste polyethylene) on gelation time, which ranged from 105 to 162.8 min. The anticorrosive properties, measured in terms of inhibition efficiencies (ranging from 93.29% to 98.16%), were found to vary between raw and hybrid filler-reinforced epoxy composites applied to aluminum in basic media. The mechanical properties of the composites were evaluated using a universal testing machine. The results indicated that epoxy composites reinforced with chemically and mechanically activated filler exhibited superior mechanical and anticorrosive properties compared to those reinforced with raw Kota stone slurry. Additionally, the findings suggest that the mechanical and anticorrosive properties of activated KSS diminish when coated with the metastable phase of waste polyethylene.