The Twenty-Fifth Annual International Conference on COMPOSITES/NANO ENGINEERING (ICCE-25) Rome, Italy July 16-22, 2017 www.icce-nano.org VIABILITY OF THE SUBSTITUTION SYNTHETIC FIBERS BY NATURAL AMAZONIAN FIBERS IN EPOXY RESIN COMPOSITES. Gilberto García del Pino 1* , Francisco Rolando Valenzuela díaz 2 , Jose Luis Valin Rivera 3 , Rameses Botelho 4 , Gabriel Federico Llerena 5 , Aristides Rivera Torres 6 , Raphael Formagio 7 1, 4, 5, 6. Department of Mechanical Engineering, State University of Amazonas, Manaus-AM / Brazil. , gpino@uea.edu.br 2, 7. Department of Materials Engineering and Metallurgy, University of São Paulo São Paulo, Brazil 3- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaíso, Chile . INTRODUCTION The development of ecological materials consists of a need to reduce the natural impacts caused by the uncontrollable extraction of natural resources and the reduction of the impact on the environment. In this way to manufacture for the current market products composed of natural fibers goes in the direction of sustainability [1]. In this work was carried out a study of the use of new composite materials through the curauá fiber (ananas erectifolius) in matrix of Epoxy Resin. The combination of these two materials resulted in the manufacture of a compound with good mechanical properties capable of replacing the glass fiber in the future. The curauá fiber of Amazonian origin presents great potential, because it relates good properties, low cost and low density. Volkswagen of Brazil [2] was the first automobile manufacturer to use the fiber of Curauá, native plant of the Amazon Forest, in its products, replacing fiberglass. In Fig. 1 we can see the plantation of curauá in the Amazon region. Fig. 1- Cultivation of Ananá (ananas erectifolius) https://paraguacu.wordpress.com/2010/01/11/vol kswagen-sustentavel/ The fiber of curauá within the vegetal fibers has aroused great interest by the fact of being cultivated in a particularly sensitive area in relation to the environmental problems, (Amazonia), [3]. Curauá fiber is the fiber of higher strength and lower density among all vegetable fibers, with tensile strength around 400 MPa. MATERIALS AND METHODS In the literature we find several works related to the curauá fiber [4], and [5], where the microstructural aspects were investigated. According to the authors, the natural adhesion between the filaments constituting the fiber originates voids between filaments when chemically treated. These voids allow the penetration of the liquid matrix and may aid in the adhesion to the polymer matrix, resulting in an effective reinforcement for compounds reinforced with curauá fibers. In this work the fibers were treated with sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and 2 different solutions were prepared with concentrations of 2.5 and 5%. The fibers were also placed in the dissolutions at different treatment times (2, 4 and 8 hours of exposure), in order to determine the best concentration and the most adequate exposure time in order to obtain the best separation of the fibrils, greater roughness to achieve the highest adhesion without compromising the strength of the composite. It is known from previous studies [6] that a long exposure time in high concentrations produces fiber deterioration and decreases the strength of the composite. A portion of the fibers were left untreated to make the necessary comparisons. After treatment the fibers were washed with tap water, dried at room temperature for 24 hours and dried in a 60 ° C oven for 10 hours to remove moisture and then placed in suitable containers without moisture entry until the time of manufacture of the test bodies, as can be seen in Fig. 2. Before manufacturing the test bodies of the composites in order to know the effectiveness of the treatments performed, samples of each fiber group were observed to the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) of the Institute of Amazonian Research (IMPA) and later it was used the Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR), to observe absorption bands of chemical groups characteristic of the curaua fibers components, such as cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. The degree of crystallinity of the different groups of curauá samples was obtained by X-ray diffraction.