A Preliminary Study on Rice Husk Filled Polypropylene Composite
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A Preliminary Study on Rice Husk Filled Polypropylene Composite Luyi Sun1, Min Xiao, Peng Xiao, Jianhua Song, Weixing Wang, Yafeng Zhang, Kecheng Gong 1 Department of Chemistry, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, U.S.A. Polymer Structure & Modification Lab, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510640, P. R. China ABSTRACT The major inorganic component of the rice husk (RH) is silica (~20%)[1]. In the past, the utilization of RH mainly concentrated on the ash of the rice husk, such as using rice husk ash (RHA) as filler in plastics, especially in polypropylene (PP). In this work, RH was directly used as filler in PP. Some treatments were applied to the RH. PP composites of different filler loadings were compounded using a laboratory size two-roll mixer at a temperature of 180° C for a period of 5 minutes. The tensile strength of the RH-PP composites increased steadily with increasing filler loading until about 20% loading. The impact strength of the composites decreased with the increasing filler loading. Torques and melt index (MI) of composites with various filler loadings were investigated. The MI of the composite decreased with the increasing filler loading. RH showed more potential than RHA as PP filler. INTRODUCTION Filler-reinforced polypropylene (PP) has been a popular subject due to the versatility of the PP to accept numerous types of fillers and reinforcements. Usage of filled polypropylene in electrical and automotive engineering has been on the increase in recent years mainly due to its excellent stiffness property that enables it to substitute conventional materials in demanding engineering applications. Fillers which merely increase bulk volume hence reduce price, are known as extender fillers while those which improve mechanical properties particularly tensile strength are termed as reinforcing fillers. Typical fillers and reinforcements for PP are glass fibers, glass spheres, talc, asbestos, wood flour, calcium carbonate, silica and mica[2]. In this study, a new type of filler: rice husk, was investigated. RH, a by-product of paddy cultivation, has been the subject of numerous investigations aimed at finding a variety of industrial uses. RH essentially consists of the following layers: (a)outer epidermis coated with a thick cuticle layer of highly silicified sinuous cells; (b)sclerenchyma of hypoderm fibres also with a thick lignified and silicified wall; (c)spongy parenchyma cells, and (d)inner epidermis of isodiametric cells. The major inorganic component of the RH is silica (~20%) which is known to be highly pure, amorphous with high surface area and reactivity[1]. Most of the industrial uses of RH pertain to the silica present in the husk. These include the preparation of silica, silicon carbide, silicon nitride, silicon, silicon tetrachloride, zeolite, etc. from RH, or using RHA as fillers in plastics, rubber, or using the RHA in cement[3]. A. K. Mohd Omar with co-workers[2,4-8] made a series of studies of using RHA as filler in polypropylene (PP), and found with increasing
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