Structural study of maritime pine wood and recycled high-density polyethylene (HDPEr) plastic composite using Infrared-ATR spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, SEM and contact angle measurements

Abstract

In this work, Wood–polymer composites (WPCs) were prepared from pine wood and High-Density Recycled Polyethylene (HDPEr). In order to gain insight of the effect of changing ratios of the wood and the polymer within the elaborated samples, a set of composites were subjected to comparative analysis by X-ray diffraction and Infrared-ATR spectroscopy, the structural investigations revealed that significant blending occurred with woodflour, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) was comparatively carried out over the different wood-polymer composition (HDPEr 70W30; HDPEr 60W40; HDPEr 50W50; HDPEr 40W60 and HDPEr 30W70).The structural analysis of the WPC was correlated with the surface analysis study.Contact Angle Measurements were carried out in order to evaluate the performance of WPC. Also, the interaction between wood and the recycled Polyethylene was supported by the static water Contact Angle test showing that the Contact Angle between water and High-Density Recycled Polyethylene (HDPEr) decreases when woodflour weight percent is greater than that of the polymer, however the water Contact Angle of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) filled with 30%,40% and 50% woodflour indicated the surface roughness was improved significantly.This statement was evidenced to be in a good consistence with the overall comparative investigations. Keywords: Composites, Recycled polyethylene, Infrared, X-ray diffraction, SEM, Contact angle