Columbia International Publishing American Journal of Materials Science and Technology (2015) Vol. 4 No. 3 pp. 125-136 doi:10.7726/ajmst.2015.1010 Research Article ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ *Corresponding e-mail: wolesuccess2000@yahoo.com, okisagbabs@yahoo.com 1 Federal University of Technology Akure, Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Nigeria 2 African Materials Science and Engineering Network (AMSEN): A Carnegie-IAS (RISE) Network 125 Effect of Corn Cob Particulate on the Mechanical and Biodegradability Properties of Reinforced Polyester Composites Oladele O. Isiaka 1,2 *, Agbabiaka G. Okikiola 1 , Ogungbe Funto 1 , and Babarinde Opeyemi 1 Received: 25 September 2015; Published online: 2 April 2016 © The author(s) 2016. Published with open access at www.uscip.us Abstract The corn cobs for this work were sourced from farmland after threshing of maize and were prepared for chemical treatment. Both treated and untreated corn cobs were then pulverized and sieved to obtain 150 and 300 µm particle sizes respectively. The composites were developed by dispersing the particulates in unsaturated polyester resin followed by proper stirring and then poured into the mould. The developed composites were allowed to cure before they are stripped from the mould and allowed to further cured for 30 days after which mechanical and biodegradability tests were carried out on the samples. It was observed from the results that both treated and untreated particulate corn cobs improved the mechanical and biodegradability properties of the developed composites while 150 µm was the most suitable particle size for flexural properties and 300 µm was the most suitable for biodegradability property. Keywords: Composites; Mechanical properties; Biodegradability; Corn cob; Polyester 1. Introduction Bio-derived or natural fibre reinforced composite material usage in recent time has grown steadily as researchers and material engineers are industriously looking for how to exploits this vast advantages in material design. Natural fibres are viewed as alternatives in production of fiber reinforced polymer composite because of their; low cost, bio-degradability, non-abrasiveness, fairly good mechanical properties and high specific strength. Composites are fast becoming the most exploited class of available engineering materials by manufacturers and engineers; this is owing to their excellent physical and mechanical properties namely light weight, corrosion resistance, high strength to weight ratio and many more. Over the