Wood plastic composites from agro-waste materials: Analysis of mechanical properties

Published Date
April 2010, Vol.101(7):2525–2528, doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2009.11.040

• Author 

• Amir Nourbakhsh ^a
 
• Alireza Ashori ^b,,

• aDepartment of Wood and Paper Science, Research Institute of Forests and Rangelands (RIFR), Tehran, Iran
• bDepartment of Chemical Industries, Iranian Research Organization for Science and Technology (IROST), Tehran, Iran

Received 17 September 2009. Revised 9 November 2009. Accepted 9 November 2009. Available online 9 December 2009. 

Abstract

This article presents the application of agro-waste materials (i.e., corn stalk, reed stalk, and oilseed stalk) in order to evaluate and compare their suitability as reinforcement for thermoplastics as an alternative to wood fibers. The effects of fiber loading and CaCO₃ content on the mechanical properties were also studied. Overall trend shows that with addition of agro-waste materials, tensile and flexural properties of the composites are significantly enhanced. Oilseed fibers showed superior mechanical properties due to their high aspect ratio and chemical characteristics. The order of increment in the mechanical properties of the composites is oilseed stalk > corn stalk > reed stalk at all fiber loadings. The tensile and flexural properties of the composite significantly decreased with increasing CaCO₃ content, due to the reduction of interface bond between the fiber and matrix. It can be concluded from this study that the used agro-waste materials are attractive reinforcements from the standpoint of their mechanical properties.

Keywords

Agro-waste materials

Calcium carbonate

Fiber loading

Mechanical properties

Injection molding

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