Effect of wood dust type on mechanical properties, wear behavior, biodegradability, and resistance to natural weathering of wood-plastic composites

The present work reports the inclusion of different proportions of Mango/Sheesham/Mahogany/Babool dust to polypropylene for improving mechanical, wear behavior and biodegradability of wood-plastic composite (WPC). The wood dust (10%, 15%, 20% by weight) was mixed with polypropylene granules and WPCs were prepared using an injection molding technique. The mechanical, wear, and morphological characterizations of fabricated WPCs were carried out using standard ASTM methods, pin on disk apparatus, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), respectively. Further, the biodegradability and resistance to natural weathering of WPCs were evaluated following ASTM D5338-11 and ASTM D1435-99, respectively. The WPCs consisting of Babool and Sheesham dust were having superior mechanical properties whereas the WPCs consisting of Mango and Mahogany were more wear resistant. It was found that increasing wood powder proportion results in higher Young's modulus, lesser wear rate, and decreased stress at break. The WPCs made of Sheesham dust were least biodegradable. It was noticed that the biodegradability corresponds with resistance to natural weathering; more biodegradable WPCs were having the lesser resistance to natural weathering.