PET/PP blend with bamboo charcoal to produce functional composites

Polymer products belong to petrochemical compounds and uneasily degrade in the natural environment. Besides, the process of extraction and purification of oil consume resources, energy and result in environmental pollution. For recycling of plastic wastes and environmental preservation, this study focused on blending and reprocessing of polyester (PET) and polypropylene (PP) due to their large amount of disposal. In this study, thermoplastic composites were made from blending virgin PET and PP pellets with the bamboo charcoal by melt compounding and then injection molding. The mechanical properties and functions of these composites were investigated. The compositions of blended ratio were also studied in this work. The results show that the mechanical properties of the PET/PPext (extrusion grade polypropylene) composites were better than that of the PET/PPinj (injection grade polypropylene) composites with 10 and 20% of polyester composition. After three extrusion processes, the tensile strength, impact strength and flexural modulus of the PET/PP, composites were still, respectively, maintained around 32 MPa, 35 J/m and 2000 MPa. While the content of polyester is 30%, the serious phase separation between PET and PP resulted in poor mechanical properties of the PET/PPext composites. While the content of polyester was 20%, the mechanical properties of the PET/PPinj composite were not significantly influenced by the addition of bamboo charcoal. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.