Characterisation of wood plastic composite manufactured from kenaf fibre reinforced recycled-unused plastic blend

This paper presents the development of wood plastic composite manufactured from recycled polypropylene/polyethylene (r-PP/PE) blend reinforced with kenaf fibre. The r-PP/PE were sourced from rejected-unused diapers, which the plastic and absorbent gel were separated. The composite was prepared by varying the fibre loadings, at 0, 30, 40, 50, and 60 wt%. The composite was tested for flexural and impact tests followed by thermal and morphological analyses. The thermal analysis was performed by using differential scanning calorimetry technique, while the scanning electron microscopy was used for morphological analysis. It was found that the maximum flexural strength of the composite was at 30 wt% of kenaf fibre, meanwhile the maximum modulus was at 60 wt%. SEM morphology showed the failure mode from the impact fractures such as voids, fibre breakage and matrix cracking. From thermal analysis, the addition of kenaf fibre reduced the degree of crystallinity of the r-PP/PE but an improvement can be observed after the second step of heating and cooling.