Effect of Silica on Thermal and Mechanical Properties of Eucalyptus-PVC Wood-Polymer Composites

Wood plastic composites (WPCs) were prepared by extrusion molding with eucalyptus powder, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and silica as additives. The mechanical properties, creep behavior, thermal properties, and cross-section microstructure of the composites were analyzed by universal testing machine, thermogravimetric analyzer, and scanning electron microscope. The results show that with the increase of silica content, the tensile strength, bending strength, and impact strength of the WPCs first increased and then decreased. When the silica content was 3.0%, the tensile strength, bending strength, and impact strength of WPC reached the maximum values of 27.5 MPa, 48.8 MPa, and 4.18 KJ center dot m-2, respectively, which represented increases of 12.6%, 9.4%, and 20.1%, respectively, compared with those without silica. When the stress was 13.4 MPa, the strain value of 3.0% SiO2-eucalyptus/PVC wood plastic composite was 3.3 times that of 4.46 MPa and 1.7 times that of 8.92 MPa. The pyrolysis process of eucalyptus/PVC WPCs showed a similar trend with different silica content.

Automated summary

Wood plastic composites (WPCs) were prepared by extrusion molding with eucalyptus powder, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and silica as additives. The mechanical properties, creep behavior, thermal properties, and cross-section microstructure of the composites were analyzed. The results showed that increasing silica content initially increased and then decreased the tensile strength, bending strength, and impact strength of the WPCs. The addition of 3.0% silica led to maximum values for these properties. The strain value of the 3.0% SiO2-eucalyptus/PVC wood plastic composite was significantly higher compared to the other samples at different stress levels. The pyrolysis process of the composites showed a similar trend with different silica content.