The Study Of High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) Based Wood Plastic Composites

The effect of four different silane coupling agents and various types of compatibilizers on the properties of wood flour/high-density-polyethylene (WF/HDPE) composites have been investigated in this study. The results show that KH560 was more effective in improving the interface adhesion between wood flour and the HDPE matrix. A800 as a compatibilizer gave higher impact strength, while HDPE-g-MAH as a compatibilizer offered the best tensile and flexural properties. Moreover, mechanical properties of as-prepared composites were affected by the wood flour loading. Specifically, the rigidity of the composites improved but the toughness decreased with the wood flour loading. SEM analysis indicated that the silane coupling agents and the compatibilizer could improve the adhesion between the wood filler and the HDPE matrix. The rheological behavior proved that the viscosity of the composite increase with the increases of wood flour content. DSC results shows that wood flour can accelerate the crystallization of HDPE and lead to a relative high Xc%, which given a evidence that the tensile and flexural strength increased with wood flour loading.On the other hand, the use of grafting monomer (XCSI) by in-situ extrusion to improve the compatibility between wood flour and HDPE has been studied in this work. It was found that monomer (XCSI) grafted composite showed better behavior in mechanical and thermal properties compared to the traditional method. Moreover, the effects of XCSI content, initiator concentration and catalyzer on the mechanical properties, morphology, water absorption and thermal stability of the composites were also investigated in this study.At last, a reactive liquid plasticizer was used in order to add more wood flour into the composite, and lower the cost of the composites and increase the process ability by particular properties of the liquid plasticizer.