Effects of Palm Waste Filled Thermoplastic Composites on Dynamic Mechanical Analysis

Abstract

The effects of palm waste (palm slag and palm ash) filled thermoplastic (high density polyethylene (HDPE) and recycled HDPE (rHDPE)) composites on dynamic mechanical analysis were examined. Two different particle size (150 μm – 300 μm) as coarse size and (≤ 75 μm) as fine size were used in this study. The palm waste of HDPE and rHDPE with 8 different types of sample were prepared using a twin screw extruder. 10 % of filler loading was chosen to produce the composite. The DMA result indicated that the fine size palm ash and coarse size palm slag have highest storage modulus incorporated with rHDPE composite meanwhile the effect of palm slag incorporated with HDPE also shown the similar findings as palm ash incorporated with HDPE. The loss modulus indicated that the coarse size of palm slag shows the lowest value and virgin HDPE gained the highest value after 90 °C in HDPE composite meanwhile fine size of palm ash and coarse size of palm slag both indicates the highest value when incorporated with rHDPE composite. For tan δ there are no significant differences recorded between the palm waste filled HDPE composite where virgin HDPE show the highest value. Meanwhile coarse size palm slag composite recorded the nearly identical tan δ value of rHDPE as the highest filled rHDPE composite. Conclusively, fine size palm ash and coarse size palm slag show the better viscoelastic properties in rHDPE composite.