Natural Fibers Reinforced Chrome Shaving Composities for Sound Absorption Applications

Abstract

Chrome shavings, the solid wastes from tanneries, show disposaldifficulties due to the presence of the heavy metal chromium. Inthis present study, we have prepared sound absorbing materialsfrom chrome shavings by blending with suitable synthetic andnatural polymers via compression molding technique.Polypropylene (PP), was chosen as a synthetic polymer toimprove the blending and natural fibers such as cotton, jute andkapok have been chosen for their porous nature. The compositeswere prepared, and their morphology was examined usingscanning electron microscopy. The sound absorption of theprepared composites has been measured using Impedance tubemethod. The results suggest that composites blended withpolypropylene exhibit more than 90% sound absorption in themid frequency range. This study shows that chrome shavings incombination with natural fibers can be used as good soundabsorption materials. Thus, the proposed approach paves theway for utilization of a leather waste to reduce noise pollution.