Wood-Plastic Biocomposites Prepared from Recycled High Density Polyethylene Bottles and Wood Flour

Abstract

The effect of wood flour (WF) contents on the mechanical, physical and morphological properties of recycled high density polyethylene (rHDPE) and virgin HDPE (vHDPE) and WF composites were investigated in the current research. Both the rHDPE and vHDPE composites were less stiff with the addition of WF. Their flexural and the tensile strengths decreased with the WF contents. Microscopic observations revealed some WF pulled-out particles and numerous interfacial cavities within composites. Total water absorption at 90th day increased with increasing WF content. In comparison, the composites with rHDPE exhibited stiffer manner due to some in organic additive added in the HDPE bottles. All the experimental results indicated that recycled HDPE is possibly used as WPC matrix instead of using virgin HDPE.