Effect of Wood Species and Coupling Agent on Mechanical Properties of Wood Flour/HDPE Composites

Abstract

As the major component of WPCs, wood flour species plays an important role on the properties of the resulting composites. The effect of wood species as filler and reinforcement and MAPE as compatibilizer on mechanical properties of wood flour/high-density polyethylene composite was investigated. The wood species used in this study were loblolly pine and hybrid Euro-American poplar. The mechanical properties such as tensile properties and notched impact toughness were tested. Poplar flour provides an improvement in tensile strength, tensile modulus, tensile energy absorption, and failure strain over pine. Tensile strength of both the composites was much higher for compatibilized composites as compared with uncompatibilized ones. For the pine composites, tensile modulus improvements were attained even with 1% compatibilizer. There was little difference in the properties obtained between the 1% and 2% compatibilizer. For the poplar composites, adding 1% compatibilizer did not have significant effect on tensile modulus and there was a significant drop in tensile modulus with further 2% increase in the compatibilizer. Wood species and compatibilizer percent did not have significant effect on the notched Izod toughness.

Natural oils as coupling agents in recycled polypropylene wood flour composites: Mechanical, thermal and morphological properties

“…A strong interfacial adhesion will reduce polymer mobility and prevent fibre pull-out from the matrix leading to a decrease in impact strength. 20,21 A similar behaviour was also observed by Bengtsson and co-workers in polypropylene reinforced with cellulose fibres. 20…”

The physical perspective on the solid and molten states associated with the mechanical properties of eco‐friendly HDPE/Pinus taeda wood‐plastic composites

“…Among the polymers useful for the manufacture of these composites, polypropylene (PP), higher density polyethylene (HDPE) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) are the most commonly investigated . When wood flour is used as filler, the influence of its constituents and the wood species must be considered as regards mechanical properties, as well as thermal and photochemical (color and chemical modifications) degradation of the resulting composites . When using nonpolar polymers (hydrophobic character) and polar components (of hydrophilic character), the interaction interface can be improved by the use of compatibilizing agents .…”

Effects of Indigenous Wood Specie and Plastic/Wood Ratio on Physicomechanical Properties of Wood Plastic Composites

“…This observation in strength properties of WPC might be as a result of more molten plastic been occupied by the fillers in the matrix; this increase in inter-particle bonding relationship between the wood powder and plastic content in the matrix. The effects of wood species on the strength performances of WPCs was reported that hardwood powder provided an improvement in tensile properties and heat deflection temperature (the temperature at which a polymer or plastic sample deforms under a specified load) over softwood powder (Zabihzadeh et al, 2009). The strength properties values obtained for wood species in this study were within the same ranged of values obtained in previous studies of (Stark and Rolands, 2003;Colom et al, 2003;Lee et al, 2001 andSanschagrin et al, 1988).…”

“…However, ponderosa pine wood flour provides the best overall mechanical property enhancements compared with other wood species like loblolly pine, maple, and oak (Berger and Stark, 1997). Zabihzadeh et al (2009) showed that WPC produced from Poplar wood flours appeared to outperform WPC produced from pine in tensile strength. It has been shown that the properties of WPCs depend on several factors like the physical and mechanical characteristics of the polymer matrix, chemical composition of wood particles, and chemical interactions between the polymer and wood (Mamunya et al, 2006).…”