Versatile Roselle Graft-Copolymers: XRD Studies and Their Mechanical Evaluation After Use as Reinforcement in Composites

Roselle is rich in cellulose content and exists as waste bio-mass in abundance thorough-out the world. It has low weight and high tensile strength that promotes its use as backbone for graft copolymerization. Various reaction parameters for the graft co-polymerization of effective acrylate monomer onto stem fiber were optimized and used in binary mixture with six vinyl monomers to screen the change in properties of the fiber. These graft copolymers were characterized by advanced analytical techniques and evaluated for mechanical strength after being incorporated in polymer matrix based composite as reinforcement.