Abstract
The common applications of poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) in many industries mean that the topic of recycling and disposal of post-consumer waste is still very important. One of the methods of reducing the negative impact of PVC waste on the natural environment is to use technological or post-consumer waste of this polymer to produce new composite materials with favorable utility properties, with the addition of natural fillers, among which agro-waste, including hop residue, is deserving of special attention. In this study, the effect of the addition of residual hops (H) on the mechanical and physicochemical properties of poly(vinyl chloride) was investigated. PVC blends containing 10, 20 and 30 wt % of hop residue were mixed in an extruder, while the specimens were obtained by the injection molding method. It was observed that the addition of H increased their thermostability, as shown by a Congo red test. Furthermore, thermogravimetric analysis showed that the degradation rate of PVC/H composites in the first and second stages of decomposition was lower in comparison with unmodified PVC. In turn, composite density, impact strength and tensile strength decreased significantly with an increasing concentration of filler in the PVC matrix. At the same time, their Young’s modulus, flexural modulus and Rockwell hardness increased. Flame resistance tests showed that with an increasing residual hop content, the limiting oxygen index (LOI) decreased by 9.0; 11.8 and 13.6%, respectively, compared to unfilled PVC (LOI = 37.4%). In addition, the maximum heat release rate (pHRR) decreased with an increasing filler content by about 16, 24 and 31%, respectively. Overall, these composites were characterized by a good burning resistance and had a flammability rating of V0 according to the UL94 test.
Highlights
◦ C increased significantly with hop the results indicated that the residue at thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) results indicated that the residue at 600 °C increased significantly with hop residue residue and was almost three times forcomposite the composite hop residue loadingloading and was almost three times higherhigher for the with with hop residue comcompared to the char yield of unmodified pared to the char yield of unmodified
One of the methods of improving the poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC)–environment relationship is reducing the use of petrochemical raw materials in favor of natural resources
This work analyzed the effect of adding residual hops on the mechanical properties, chemical and physical structure, and the flammability of composites within a rigid poly(vinyl chloride) matrix
Summary
In 2018, approximately 44.3 Mt of poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) was produced worldwide [1]. The high interest in PVC production is due to its durability, light weight, strength, fire resistance, insulating properties and low permeability [2]. It is used in the manufacture of prefabricated sandwich structures and finished products such as window frames, profiles, floors, wall coverings, pipes, cable insulation, garden hoses, inflatable pools and geomembranes [2,3,4,5,6]. PVC comes in two basic forms: rigid (sometimes abbreviated as RPVC or UPVC) and flexible [2]
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