scholarly journals Effect of Hard Plastic Waste on the Quality of Recycled Polypropylene Blends

Recycling ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 58
Author(s):  
Patrizio Tratzi ◽  
Chiara Giuliani ◽  
Marco Torre ◽  
Laura Tomassetti ◽  
Roberto Petrucci ◽  
...  

The recycling of plastic waste is undergoing fast growth due to environmental, health and economic issues, and several blends of post-consumer and post-industrial polymeric materials have been characterized in recent years. However, most of these researches have focused on plastic containers and packaging, neglecting hard plastic waste. This study provides the first experimental characterization of different blends of hard plastic waste and virgin polypropylene in terms of melt index, differential scan calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), mechanical properties (tensile, impact and Shore hardness) and Vicat softening test. Compared to blends based on packaging plastic waste, significant differences were observed in terms of melt flow index (about 10 points higher for hard plastic waste). Mechanical properties, in particular yield strain, were instead quite similar (between 5 and 9%), despite a higher standard deviation being observed, up to 10%, probably due to incomplete homogenization. Results demonstrate that these worse performances could be mainly attributed to the presence of different additives, as well as to the presence of impurities or traces of other polymers, other than incomplete homogenization. On the other hand, acceptable results were obtained for selected blends; the optimal blending ratio was identified as 78% post-consumer waste and 22% post-industrial waste, meeting the requirement for injection molding and thermoforming.

Polymers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 2134
Author(s):  
Sandra Paszkiewicz ◽  
Izabela Irska ◽  
Iman Taraghi ◽  
Elżbieta Piesowicz ◽  
Jakub Sieminski ◽  
...  

The effect of the presence of halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) and silane-treated alumina trihydrate (ATH-sil) nanofillers on the mechanical, thermal, and flame retardancy properties of ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) copolymer/low-density polyethylene (LDPE) blends was investigated. Different weight percentages of HNT and ATH-sil nanoparticles, as well as the hybrid system of those nanofillers, were melt mixed with the polymer blend (reference sample) using a twin-screw extruder. The morphology of the nanoparticles and polymer compositions was studied using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). The mechanical properties, hardness, water absorption, and melt flow index (MFI) of the compositions were assessed. The tensile strength increases as a function of the amount of HNT nanofiller; however, the elongation at break decreases. In the case of the hybrid system of nanofillers, the compositions showed superior mechanical properties. The thermal properties of the reference sample and those of the corresponding sample with nanofiller blends were studied using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Two peaks were observed in the melting and crystallization temperatures. This shows that the EVA/LDPE is an immiscible polymer blend. The thermal stability of the blends was improved by the presence of HNTs and ATH-sil nanoparticles. Thermal degradation temperatures were shifted to higher values by the presence of hybrid nanofillers. Finally, the flammability of the compositions was assessed. Flammability as reflected by the limiting oxygen index (OI) was increased by the presence of HNT and ATH-sil nanofiller and a hybrid system of the nanoparticles.


Materials ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 1242
Author(s):  
Olga Mysiukiewicz ◽  
Paulina Kosmela ◽  
Mateusz Barczewski ◽  
Aleksander Hejna

Investigations related to polymer/metal composites are often limited to the analysis of the electrical and thermal conductivity of the materials. The presented study aims to analyze the impact of aluminum (Al) filler content (from 1 to 20 wt%) on the rarely investigated properties of composites based on the high-density polyethylene (HDPE) matrix. The crystalline structure, rheological (melt flow index and oscillatory rheometry), thermal (differential scanning calorimetry), as well as static (tensile tests, hardness, rebound resilience) and dynamic (dynamical mechanical analysis) mechanical properties of composites were investigated. The incorporation of 1 and 2 wt% of aluminum filler resulted in small enhancements of mechanical properties, while loadings of 5 and 10 wt% provided materials with a similar performance to neat HDPE. Such results were supported by the lack of disturbances in the rheological behavior of composites. The presented results indicate that a significant content of aluminum filler may be introduced into the HDPE matrix without additional pre-treatment and does not cause the deterioration of composites’ performance, which should be considered beneficial when engineering PE/metal composites.


2013 ◽  
Vol 701 ◽  
pp. 202-206
Author(s):  
Ahmad Aroziki Abdul Aziz ◽  
Sakinah Mohd Alauddin ◽  
Ruzitah Mohd Salleh ◽  
Mohammed Iqbal Shueb

Effect of nanoMagnesium Hydroxide (MH) nloading amount to the mechanical and physical properties of Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE)/ Poly (ethylene-co vinyl acetate)(EVA) nanocomposite has been described and investigated in this paper. The tensile strength results show that increased amount of nanofiller will decrease and deteriorate the mechanical properties. The elongation at break decreased continuously with increasing loading of nanofiller. Generally, mechanical properties become poorer as loading amount increase. Melt Flow Index values for physical properties also provide same trend as mechanical properties results. Increase filler amount reduced MFI values whereby increased resistance to the flow.


2012 ◽  
Vol 85 (3) ◽  
pp. 521-532 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeevan Prasad Reddy ◽  
Manjusri Misra ◽  
Amar Mohanty

In this research, switchgrass (SG) fiber-reinforced poly(trimethylene terephthalate) (PTT) biocomposites were prepared by extrusion followed by injection molding machine. The methylene-diphenyl-diisocyanate-polybutadiene (MDIPB) prepolymer was used to enhance the impact strength of the biocomposites. In addition, the polymeric methylene-diphenyl-diisocyanate (PMDI) compatibilizer was used to enhance the mechanical properties of the composites. The effect of compatibilizer on mechanical, crystallization melting, thermomechanical, melt flow index (MFI), morphological, and thermal stability properties of the composites was studied. Thermomechanical properties of the biocomposites were studied by dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA). Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to observe the interfacial adhesion between the fiber and matrix. The results showed that MDIPB and PMDI have a significant effect on the mechanical properties of the composites. The impact strength of MDIPB- and PMDI-compatibilized composites was increased by 87 % when compared to the uncompatibilized composite.


2013 ◽  
Vol 701 ◽  
pp. 42-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abd Aziz Noor Zuhaira ◽  
Rahmah Mohamed

This research is to identify the difference in melt flow and mechanical properties in hybrid composites between kenaf and rice husk that each of the filler was compounded with composite material of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) in different loading amount. Different filler loading up to 30 parts of kenaf fibers and rice husk particulate were mixed with the fixed 30% amount of CaCO3. Compounded hybrid composite were prepared and tested for melt flow index, tensile and impact strength. Addition of both fillers had decreased melt flow index (MFI). MFI of rice husk/CaCO3 was higher than kenaf/CaCO3 in HDPE composites. Tensile strength, elongation at break and impact properties of both hybrid composites had decreased with increasing filler content. Tensile strength of kenaf/CaCO3 was higher than rice husk/CaCO3 due to intrinsic fiber structure of kenaf which has some reinforcing effect compared to rice husk. While, impact strength of rice husk/CaCO3 was improved with addition of filler but drastically decrease as the rice husk content were increased up to 30% due to high silica content in rice husk. The Youngs Modulus was increased with addition of natural fibers in CaCO3/HDPE composite.


2005 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 219-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arup Choudhury ◽  
Mandira Mukherjee ◽  
Basudam Adhikari

The present investigation deals with the viability of the use of recycled milk pouch material, which is a 50:50 mixture of LDPE and LLDPE, and the scope for improvement of its properties by combining it with virgin LDPE-LLDPE (50/50). Melt flow index (MFI), rheological properties, thermal and mechanical properties of the pure materials and their formulated blends containing recycled milk pouches were studied. The properties of the recycled materials were not as satisfactory as those of the corresponding virgin materials. But a significant improvement in viscosity, crystallinity, tensile strength and elongation at break of the recycled LDPE-LLDPE material was achieved by blending it with the corresponding virgin LDPE-LLDPE blend.


2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 2446-2452
Author(s):  
Tomasz Mariusz Majka ◽  
Marcin Majka ◽  
Muhammad Kamrul Hasan

This article reports the prediction of the theoretical flow curves of polyamide composites by using Vinogradov-Malkin model. Determination of the melt flow index of polymeric materials is the first step to study viscosity-shear rate relationship. The viscosity of the composites at different temperatures were calculated by using the Williams, Landel'a and Ferry (WLF) equation. Other important rheological characteristics were calculated by using appropriate equations. One point method is employed to correlate the changes in viscosity with temperatures. As expected, it is found that incorporation of nanoclay to polyamide 6 (PA6) significantly decreases the Melt Flow Rate of the composites and hence, increases density. Addition of stabilizer further increases density of the PA6/nanoclay composites. The simulations of viscosity curves for PA6 composites were carried out at measurement temperature, 240°C and in the range of 180°C - 350°C with shear rate of 10-1 – 103 1/s. It is found that addition of nanoclay and stabilizer to PA6 decreases viscosity of the composites in the order of PA6/OMMT > PA6 > PA6/I1098 > PA6/OMMT/I1098 > PA6/MMT/I1098 > PA6/MMT. At higher shear rates, viscosity decreases in the same sequence as low shear rates. At further higher shear rates (> 1000 1/s), filler particles are arranged in the flow direction thus exerting no significant effect on viscosity of composites both with and without the stabilizer. During injection moulding in the shear rate ranging from 101 – 104 1/s at 240°C temperature, it is evident that viscosity decreases drastically with increase in shear rate.


2012 ◽  
Vol 428 ◽  
pp. 89-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ehsan Soury ◽  
Amir Hossein Behravesh ◽  
Nathan Jafarian Jam ◽  
Ali Haghtalab

This paper presents an experimental study on surface quality (roughness) for extruded wood plastic composites (WPC) in an extrusion process. A problem that usually occurs in production of extruded parts of polymeric materials, and in special case of WPC, is flow instabilities at the extrusion die exit. The instabilities lead to production of profiles with unacceptable surface quality. In this paper, the influences of the important material and process parameters on the surface quality are investigated. The variable parameters were selected as wood content, polymer melt flow index (MFI), screw speed, melt temperature, die diameter and finally length-to-diameter ratio of the die land. The experiments specified that increasing die land length-to-diameter ratio (L/D), die temperature and wood content and decreasing screw speed and polymer MFI lead to improve the surface quality.


2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 155892501801300
Author(s):  
Fei Wang ◽  
Lichao Liu ◽  
Ping Xue ◽  
Mingyin Jia ◽  
Hua Sun

Ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) blend fibers with the highest tensile strength of 1.13 GPa were prepared by a melt spinning process. The crystal structure and mechanical behavior of the as-spun filaments and fibers were studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscope (AFM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), sound velocity orientation test and tensile strength test. The results suggested that the degree of molecular chain orientation, crystallinity and mechanical properties of the blend fibers were improved by blending with the low melt flow index (MFI) HDPE. The crystal grains of low MFI HDPE blend fibers that were formed by more highly oriented molecular chains could be stretched more effectively in the drawing direction, and the improved mechanical properties were due to the more regular and compact crystal structure.


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