Abstract
The need for eco-friendly materials has risen globally due to environmental consciousness. This work involved the extraction and utilization of silane treated and untreated Citrullus lanatus stem fiber for eco-friendly brake friction composites. The fibers were extracted from Citrullus lanatus plant stems using a conventional manual retting process followed by silane treatment. The silane-treated and untreated Citrullus lanatus stem fibers were analyzed for physical, chemical, and thermal characteristics. The application suitability was explored by developing brake friction composites in the form of brake pads using silane-treated and untreated Citrullus lanatus stem fiber in addition to parental ingredients by the conventional process and compared with the glass fiber-based one. The developed brake pads were analyzed for performance properties as per industrial standards. The tribological performance was measured using the Chase test following IS2742-Part-4. The test results showed that cellulose content was 60.3% for silane-treated Citrullus lanatus fibers while it was 53.7% for untreated Citrullus lanatus fibers. The normal friction properties showed that silane-treated Citrullus lanatus stem fibers-based brake pads had 0.413 while it was 0.41 for glass fiber-based brake pads and 0.392 for untreated fiber-based ones. Using a scanning electron microscope, the worn surface of Chase brake pads revealed features like plowing, plateau formations.