Recycled Polypropylene (PP) - Wood Saw Dust (WSD) Composites : The Effect of Acetylation on Mechanical and Water Absorption Properties

Recycled polypropylene (RPP) - Wood Saw Dust (WSD) composites with and without acetylation of filler were produced at different filler loading (15%, 25%, 35% and 45% w/w) and filler size (300, 212 and $100{\mu}m$). The RPP-WSD was compounded using a Haake Rheodrive 500 twin screw compounder at $190^{\circ}C$ at 8 MPa for 30 minutes. The mechanical properties and water absorption properties of modified and unmodified WSD-PP composites were investigated. Acetylation of WSD improved the mechanical and water absorption characteristic of composites. The decrease of filler size (300 to $100{\mu}m$) of the unmodified and acetylated WSD showed increase of tensile strength and impact properties. The composites exhibited higher tensile modulus properties as the filler loading increased (15% to 45%). However tensile strength, elongation at break and impact strength showed the opposite phenomenon. Water absorption increased as the mesh number and filler loading increased. With acetylation, lower moisture absorption was observed as compared to unmodified WSD. The failure mechanism from impact fracture of the filler-matrix interface with and without acetylation was analyzed using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM).