The Recycling of Sugarcane Fiber/Polypropylene Composites

Abstract

Mechanical recycling is utilized to reuse waste and obtain other plastic products via the reprocessing of a material in industrial equipment. Natural fiber composites have become more popular in recent years; however, these composites' mechanical behavior remains less well-understood than single polymers’ behavior after recycling. Therefore, the objective of this work was to study the degradation of different sugarcane fibers/polypropylene composites using new grinding and injection processes and to evaluate the mechanical properties of these materials using analysis of variance (ANOVA). This work reveals the mechanical behaviors of recycled natural fiber composites that contain thermal stabilizer additives. Polypropylene composites reinforced with differently treated bagasse and straw fibers (10 and 20 wt%/PP) were obtained through melt mixing using a high-intensity thermokinetic mixer and were subsequently injected. The recycled composites exhibited decreased tensile strength relative to the original composites. However, when thermal stabilizers were added, the mechanical properties were maintained or increased, depending on the fiber and additive types.

Keywords

• sugarcane fibers
• polypropylene
• composites
• recycling