Fabrication and Characterization of Recycled Polyethylene Terephthalate Composites Reinforced with Sisal Fibre and Wood Sawdust

Abstract

Extensive use of polymers in daily life has led to increased related waste, giving rise to environmental problems. In the modern day, environmental and ecological concerns have made plastic recycling a significant issue. The majority of the world's solid trash is made up of plastic garbage, which is composed of different polymer chains. A particularly appealing method of getting rid of unwanted plastic is mechanical recycling, though there are other ways to recycle plastic as well. The recycled plastics can also be reinforced with either natural or synthetic textile fibres to manufacture composite materials. This research aims to evaluate the physical and mechanical characteristics of sisal fibre and wood sawdust-reinforced recycled polyethylene terephthalate [RPET] composites. The amount of sisal fibre content in the composites varied from 10%, 15%, 20%, and 25% to 30% by weight. Whereas the wood sawdust was used at 5% for each sample of composite. The composites were manufactured by the melt-mixing method. The effects of fibre loading on various composite characteristics were investigated using tensile strength, tensile modulus, flexural strength, flexural modulus, impact strength, compressive strength, density, and water absorption. The results show that a maximum tensile strength of 84.96 MPa, a tensile modulus of 1.77 GPa, a flexural strength of 230.8 MPa, a flexural modulus of 11.24 GPa, an impact strength of 18.96 KJ/m2, and a compressive strength of 194.8 MPa were obtained. The water absorption of the composite increased with the increase in fibre weight proportion, and the density of composites decreased with increasing sisal fibre weight. From the results of this study, it can be concluded that a better combination of results has been found for sisal fibre (25%), wood dust (5%), and RPET (70%). Therefore, sawdust and sisal fibre can be used as filler and reinforcement in the RPET matrix, which will reduce cost and provide environmental benefits.

Keywords

• recycled polyethylene terephthalate composites
• sisal fibre
• wood sawdust
• pet
• properties