Recycling of waste artificial marble powder in HDPE‐wood composites

Abstract

Waste artificial marble powder (AMP), an industrial waste generated from artificial marble processing, was recycled and incorporated in high‐density polyethylene (HDPE)‐wood composites. The results showed that waste AMP was mainly made up of aluminum hydroxide (Al(OH)3) and unsaturated polyester. Incorporating waste AMP into HDPE‐wood composites could increase the flexural strength and flexural modulus of composites but obviously decrease the notched impact strength. However, with the addition of maleic anhydride grafted polyethylene (MAPE), the mechanical properties of AMP/HDPE‐wood composites increased greatly. With 60 phr (parts per hundreds of resin) waste AMP, the notched impact strength and tensile strength of composites reached to 5.03 kJ/m2 and 28.0 MPa, respectively, increased by 98.1% and 55.6% compared to the composites without MAPE. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) photographs revealed that MAPE improved the interfacial adhesion between fillers and HDPE matrix. In addition, the incorporation of waste AMP increased the heat resistance, limiting oxygen index (LOI) value of composites and decreased the horizontal burning rate. This study provides a new method for resource utilization of waste AMP, which could improve the performances of composites and avoid environmental pollution. POLYM. COMPOS., 39:2347–2355, 2018. © 2016 Society of Plastics Engineers