A Preliminary Study on Rice Husk Filled Polypropylene Composite

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe major inorganic component of the rice husk (RH) is silica (∼20%)[1]. In the past, the utilization of RH mainly concentrated on the ash of the rice husk, such as using rice husk ash (RHA) as filler in plastics, especially in polypropylene (PP). In this work, RH was directly used as filler in PP. Some treatments were applied to the RH. PP composites of different filler loadings were compounded using a laboratory size two-roll mixer at a temperature of 180° C for a period of 5 minutes. The tensile strength of the RH-PP composites increased steadily with increasing filler loading until about 20% loading. The impact strength of the composites decreased with the increasing filler loading. Torques and melt index (MI) of composites with various filler loadings were investigated. The MI of the composite decreased with the increasing filler loading. RH showed more potential than RHA as PP filler.