Performance of waste-paper/PETG wood–plastic composites

• Published in: AIP advances 2018-05, Vol.8 (5), p.055204-055204-11
• Main Authors: Huang, Lijie, An, Shuxiang, Li, Chunying, Huang, Chongxing, Wang, Shuangfei, Zhang, Xiaoxiao, Xu, Mingzi, Chen, Jie, Zhou, Lei
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 2158-3226; 2158-3226
• DOI: 10.1063/1.5026265

Wood–plastic composites were prepared from polyethylene terephthalate- 1,4-cyclohexanedimethanol ester (PETG) and waste-paper fiber that was unmodified, modified with alkyl-ketene-dimer (AKD), and modified with a silane-coupling agent. The mechanical properties, water absorption properties, surface structure, and thermal properties of the three prepared materials were compared. The results showed that the optimum amount of waste-paper powder is 10 wt%, while that of the waste-paper particles is 60–80 mesh. The use of AKD and coupling agent KH550 can reduce the water absorption of the composite; however, the reductive effect of the coupling agent is better, in that it is reduced by 0.3%. Modification using a 1-wt% KH550 coupling agent can effectively increase the tensile strength of a composite from 31.36 to 41.67 MPa (increase of 32.8%), while the bending strength increased from 86.47 to 98.31 MPa (increase of 13.7%). This also enhances the thermal stability of the composites. With the addition of the coupling agent, the composite material maintains good mechanical properties even after being immersed in water; this can enable the safe use of these composite materials in outdoor environments.