Study On Preparation And Properties Of Waste Polystyrene Matrix Composite Materials

Polystyrene(PS)as a general plastic has been widely used in our daily life and commercial production.Expanded polystyrene(EPS)material is a typical disposable plastic,it has a long degradation time and takes up large space due to its big volume.Currently,simple landfill and incineration are easy to cause secondary pollution to the environment.Therefore,it is of practical significance to develop a simple and environmental friendly process for effective utilization of polystyrene disposable products.In this paper,the waste expanded/polystyrene(WEPS)was reused as a matrix,the reinforcing materials were sericite powder and polycarbonate,respectively.Using solution blending method,we prepared the different PS matrix composites,such as sericite/PS,PC/PS materials.Considering the environment and cost,we collected and recycled the spent solvent and solution in the experiment.Besides,the solution recycling times were also investigated.We achieved the innocent treatment for WEPS and added its value.The related work is as follows:Firstly,the sericite powder was pretreated before blending with PS matrix.We choose the KH-550 as coupling agent for bonding with sericite.The modified sericite was characterized and related properties were compared with raw sericite.The results showed that the modified sericite powder has a better hydrophobic property when KH-550 was 2.5 wt%.Secondly,using the modified sericite,the sericite/PS beads and sericite expanded polystyrene(sericite/EPS)foam board were prepared.The effect of sericite in PS matrix was discussed.And the properties of samples were tested by FT-IR,XRD,TGA,DSC,SEM,thermal conductivity,density and viscosity.The results showed that the structure of PS was not destroyed.The composite beads have a better stability and high Tg.As for sericite/EPS foam board samples,the results showed that the thermal conductivity of EPS foam board was decreased when adding the sericite.The cell structure is uniform and closed,the size of it is about 50~10 ?m.The sericite/EPS foam board has a lower thermal conductivity when sericite is 5 wt %.Thirdly,using polycarbonate(PC)as a reinforced material,the PC/PS composite beads were obtained by solution blending.The samples were characterized by FT-IR,XRD,SEM,TGA and mechanical property.The results showed that its thermal stability has improved with PC content increasing.And its mechanical strength was also improved,which can contribute to expanding the PS application.