Mechanical, Thermal and Biodegradable Properties of Bioplast-Spruce Green Wood Polymer Composites

Abstract

Environmental and sustainability concerns push the industries to manufacture alternative materials having less environmental impact. The Wood Plastic Composites (WPCs) produced by blending the biopolymers and natural fillers permit not only to tailor the desired properties of materials but also are the solution to meet the environmenta l and sustainability requireme nts. This work presents the elaboration and characterization of the fully green WPCs prepared by blending a biopolymer, BIOPLAST® GS 2189 and spruce sawdust used as filler with different amounts. Since both components are bio-based, the resulting material is entire ly environmentally friendly. The mechanical, thermal, structural properties of these WPCs were characterized by different analyt ical methods like tensile, flexural and impact tests, Thermogravimet ric Analysis (TGA), Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and X- ray Diffraction (XRD). Their wat er absorption properties and resistance to the termite and fungal attacks were determined in relation with different wood filler content. The tensile and fl exural moduli of WPCs increased with i ncreasing amount of wood fillers into the biopolymer, but WPCs became more brittle compared to t he neat polymer. Incorporation of spruce sawdust modified the ther mal properties of polymer: The degra dation, cold crystallization, a nd melting temperatures shifted to higher temperatures when spruce sawdust was added into polymer. The termite, fungal and water absorption resistance of WPCs decreased with increasing wood amount in WPCs, but remained in durability class 1 (durable) concerning fungal resistance and quoted 1 (attempted attack) in visual rating regarding to the termites resistance except that the WPC with the highest wood content (30 wt%) rated 2 (slight atta ck) indicating a long term durability. All the results showed the possibility to elaborate the easy injectable composite material s with adjustable properties by incorpor ation of BIOPLAST® GS 2189 and spruce sawdust. Therefore, lightweight WPCs allow both to recyc le wood industry byproducts and to produce a full ecologic material.