Effect of SiO 2 and nanoclay on the properties of wood polymer nanocomposite
- PDF / 527,376 Bytes
- 15 Pages / 439.37 x 666.142 pts Page_size
- 26 Downloads / 214 Views
Effect of SiO2 and nanoclay on the properties of wood polymer nanocomposite Biplab K. Deka • Tarun K. Maji
Received: 6 September 2011 / Revised: 18 April 2012 / Accepted: 16 June 2012 / Published online: 23 June 2012 Ó Springer-Verlag 2012
Abstract Wood polymer composite (WPC) were developed by using solution blended high density polyethylene, low density polyethylene, polypropylene, poly(vinyl chloride), Phragmites karka wood flour and polyethylene-co-glycidyl methacrylate. The effect of addition of nanoclay and SiO2 on the properties of the composite was examined. X-ray diffractrometry and transmission electron microscopy were used to study the distribution of silicate layers and SiO2 nanopowder in the composite. The improvement in miscibility among the polymers and WPC was studied by scanning electron microscopy. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy study revealed the interaction between polymer, wood, clay and SiO2. WPC treated with 3 wt% each of clay and SiO2 showed an excellent improvement in mechanical properties, thermal and flame retarding properties. Water uptake of WPC was found to decrease on incorporation of nanoclay and SiO2 in WPC. Keywords Nanocomposites Polymers Nanoclay Mechanical properties Transmission electron microscopy
Introduction During the last few decades, wood polymer composite (WPC) have emerged as an important family of green composite [1]. They are used in different outdoor, indoor applications like decking, railing, fencing, docks, landscaping timbers, and in a number of automobiles industries [2]. The composites reinforced with wood have shown a great grown due to the many advantages that they possess. Their processing
B. K. Deka T. K. Maji (&) Department of Chemical Sciences, Tezpur University, Tezpur 784028, Assam, India e-mail: [email protected]
123
404
Polym. Bull. (2013) 70:403–417
is easy, economic, and ecological. They have relatively high strength and stiffness, low cost, low density, low CO2 emission, biodegradability and renewable. Varieties of non conventional plant materials like Nal (Phragmites karka), a type of non conventional plant, is abundantly available in the forest of Assam, India. These are mostly utilized for fuel purposes or remain as bio wastes. Their uses for structural purposes are restricted due to their poor mechanical properties and dimensional stability. They can be made value added material for preparation of structural components by making composites with plastics materials. These composites will not only contribute to the economical growth but it can also reduce the amount of bio wastes. Sui et al. [3] has prepared WPC by using sunflower hull sanding dust (SHSD), a non conventional plant as reinforcing agent and PP as matrix. Polypropylene (PP) [4], high density polyethylene (HDPE) [5], low density polyethylene (LDPE) [6], poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) [7], are the most widely used plastics in large volume because of their versatile properties like light weight, resistance to breakage, low cost, ease of manufacture, fabrication and
Data Loading...
