Enhancement of strength and flexibility of high-density polyethylene using rubber leaves

Abstract

High density polyethylene (HDPE) polymer suffers with lack of strength and flexibility that result in fracture of vessels and leakage of piping system. One way to overcome the brittleness problem of the polymer is by reinforcement of fillers such as fibers into the polymer matrix to form a polymer composite. In this study, the effect of incorporating rubber leaves as the filler into high density polyethylene (HDPE) polymer matrix on the tensile properties and morphology of the polymer composite was investigated. The composites were prepared with or without addition of glycerol as plasticizer and citric acid as cross linker. Despite using a common size of the filler, the sieve sizes of the rubber leaves were varied at 200µm, 300µm and 500µm respectively. Results show that the presence of 200 µm rubber leaves with glycerol and citric acid increased the strength of the polymer composites, where the tensile strength achieves 22.1 MPa without jeopardizing the elongation of the composite. The image from SEM reveals that rubber leaves fibers and plasticizers are dispersed homogeneously in the polymer matrix HDPE. This potential used of rubber leaves in the manufacturing of HDPE polymer composites will help to utilize the abundant amount of rubber leaves.