Performance of waste-paper/PETG wood–plastic composites
Lijie Huang,
Shuxiang An,
Chunying Li,
Chongxing Huang,
Shuangfei Wang,
Xiaoxiao Zhang,
Mingzi Xu,
Jie Chen,
Lei Zhou
Affiliations
Lijie Huang
Guangxi Key Laboratory of Clean Pulp & Papermaking and Pollution Control, College of Light Industry and Food Engineering, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, China
Shuxiang An
Guangxi Key Laboratory of Clean Pulp & Papermaking and Pollution Control, College of Light Industry and Food Engineering, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, China
Chunying Li
Guangxi Key Laboratory of Clean Pulp & Papermaking and Pollution Control, College of Light Industry and Food Engineering, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, China
Chongxing Huang
Guangxi Key Laboratory of Clean Pulp & Papermaking and Pollution Control, College of Light Industry and Food Engineering, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, China
Shuangfei Wang
Guangxi Key Laboratory of Clean Pulp & Papermaking and Pollution Control, College of Light Industry and Food Engineering, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, China
Xiaoxiao Zhang
Guangxi Key Laboratory of Clean Pulp & Papermaking and Pollution Control, College of Light Industry and Food Engineering, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, China
Mingzi Xu
Guangxi Key Laboratory of Clean Pulp & Papermaking and Pollution Control, College of Light Industry and Food Engineering, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, China
Jie Chen
Guangxi Key Laboratory of Clean Pulp & Papermaking and Pollution Control, College of Light Industry and Food Engineering, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, China
Lei Zhou
Key Laboratory of Pulp and Paper Science & Technology of Ministry of Education/Shandong Province, Qilu University of Technology, Jinan 250353, China
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.
