Rice-husk flour filled polypropylene composites; mechanical and morphological study

To determine the possibility of using lignocellulosic materials as reinforcing fillers in the thermoplastic polymer composite, polypropylene as the matrix and rice-husk flour as the reinforcing filler were used to prepare a particle-reinforced composite in order to determine testing data for the physical, mechanical and morphological properties of the composite according to the filler loading in respect to thermoplastic polymer. In the sample preparation, four levels of filler loading (10, 20, 30 and 40 wt.%) were designed. In the tensile test, six levels of test temperature (-30, 0, 20, 50, 80 and 110 degreesC) and five levels of crosshead speed (2, 10, 100, 500 and 1500 mm/min) were designed. Tensile strengths of the composites slightly decreased as the filler loading increased. Tensile modulus improved with increasing filler loading. Notched and unnotched Izod impact strengths were lowered by the addition of rice-husk flour. The composite became brittle at higher crosshead speed, and showed plastic deformation with increasing test temperature. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.