Abstract
Polymer blends based on recycled high density polyethylene (rHDPE) and recycled poly(ethylene terephthalate) (rPET) with and without ethylene-glycidyl methacrylate copolymer (E-GMA) as compatibilizer were fabricated in a co-rotating twin screw extruder. The effects of rPET and compatibilizer content on the mechanical properties and morphological stability of rHDPE-rich blends were investigated. The rHDPE/rPET (75/25 wt/wt) blend compatibilized with 5 php (per 100 part of polymer) E-GMA showed an enhancement of about 7% - 26% in tensile properties and flexural strength as compared with those of the neat rHDPE. The strain at break showed a decreasing trend as the rPET content increased. The addition of E-GMA to the rHDPE/rPET blends was found to recover the blend toughness as well as improving the compatibility between HDPE and PET. In this study, the highest strain at break was obtained for the rHDPE/rPET blends at 75/25 (wt/wt) composition with E-GMA content of 5 php. FTIR and SEM analysis of the compatibilized blends confirmed the chemical interaction and improved interfacial bonding between the two phases.
Highlights
The worldwide annual collection of post-consumer and post-industrial plastic wastes is approximately a fewHow to cite this paper: Chen, R.S., Ab Ghani, M.H., Salleh, M.N., Ahmad, S. and Gan, S. (2014) Influence of Blend Composition and Compatibilizer on Mechanical and Morphological Properties of Recycled High density polyethylene (HDPE)/poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) Blends
At higher recycled poly(ethylene terephthalate) (rPET) content, the reduction of blend strength could be attributed to the appearance of voids and poor bonding rPET fibrerHDPE matrix, as observed in SEM images
The decrease of SB with rPET concentration in uncompatibilized blends were due to the low strain at break and brittle nature of PET fibres, which restrict the mobility of polymer molecules [13] [16]
Summary
The worldwide annual collection of post-consumer and post-industrial plastic wastes is approximately a fewHow to cite this paper: Chen, R.S., Ab Ghani, M.H., Salleh, M.N., Ahmad, S. and Gan, S. (2014) Influence of Blend Composition and Compatibilizer on Mechanical and Morphological Properties of Recycled HDPE/PET Blends. There is still a significant of amount of plastics end up in landfill despite the recycling capacity for plastic wastes have been progressively increased [1]. High density polyethylene (HDPE) and poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) are extensively used in packaging of consumers and industry products and constitute a significant fraction of post-consumer waste [4]. Both HDPE and PET bottles represent a promising recycling opportunity since there is a great interest in finding new possibilities for the use of post-consumer plastics as new products [5]. Mechanical recycling that involves blending of plastics is one of the attractive recycling method to obtain new materials with superior mechanical properties of blends due to the ease of fabrication, highly convenient and economical advantage reasons [4]-[6]
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