Tensile Properties of Aminosilane Treated Rice Husk/ Recycled PVC Composite

Abstract

Rice husk is an agricultural waste produced in bulk quantity as a part of rice milling. There have been many approaches in utilizing rice husk as fillers in polymer composite. However, recycled PVC has not been reported to be used in PVC/rice husk composites yet. In this research, a good interfacial interaction between rice husk and recycled polyvinylchloride has been achieved by incorporation of aminosilane as coupling agent. The aminosilane treated recycled polyvinyl chloride was mixed with rice husk and then fabricated by using hot compression moulding. Three different ratio of rice husk to recycled polyvinyl chloride were used which is 65/35, 55/45 and 45/55 as shown in Table 1. The positive effect of rice husk reinforcement as well as surface treatment has been reflected in the improved tensile properties of the resulting polyvinyl chloride based composite. However, flexural stress of the treated composite drops with increasing filler percentage. The incorporation of aminosilane as coupling agent increases the tensile stress of 45 wt% of rice husk significantly. Scanning electron microscopy has been used to understand the failure mechanisms of aminosilane modified rice husk filled recycled polyvinylchloride composites. The findings can be used to increase the effort in recycling rice husk and PVC.