Flexible artificial stone developed with waste tire and waste glass agglomerated by a biopolymeric resin

Abstract

Artificial stones are building materials developed with stony waste aggregates and a polymeric resin as an agglomerate. Its mechanical properties, in general, overcome natural stone's properties, since the use of resin makes it possible to manufacture a less porous, that is, a denser material, more impermeable, and with greater mechanical resistance. However, its development is costly because it requires the use of high-quality aggregates. Waste can replace these aggregates, developing an economically and environmentally advantageous novel, sustainable artificial stone. This work's main goal is to develop a flexible sustainable artificial stone based on waste glass and waste tire agglomerated with a biopolymeric resin, polyurethane from castor oil, and evaluate its properties. Plates were manufactured with 22% of polyurethane resin and 78% of different proportions of the two wastes (glass and tire) mixed up. The molding was carried out under a 600 mmHg vacuum, a 6Hz vibration, and an 80° hot pressing for 20 min. The stones developed, named AS50GT and AS66GT, were lighter than other developed artificial stones, but less resistant to bending efforts since rubber tire is a polymeric material. However, they displayed a high Izod impact strength, evidencing that the development of artificial stones with glass and tire wastes and biopolymeric polyurethane resin is viable, not only from an economic and environmental point of view but also technically viable once both developed stones can be marked in the building construction industry.