Development of Polypropylene/Polyethylene Terephthalate Microfibrillar Composites Filament to Support Waste Management

Abdulhakim Almajid; Rolf Walter; Tim Kroos; Harry Junaidi; Martin Gurka; Khalil Abdelrazek Khalil

doi:10.3390/polym13020233

Development of Polypropylene/Polyethylene Terephthalate Microfibrillar Composites Filament to Support Waste Management

Polymers (Basel). 2021 Jan 12;13(2):233. doi: 10.3390/polym13020233.

Authors

Abdulhakim Almajid^{1

2}, Rolf Walter³, Tim Kroos³, Harry Junaidi¹, Martin Gurka³, Khalil Abdelrazek Khalil⁴

Affiliations

¹ Mechanical Engineering Department, College of Engineering, King Saud University, P.O. Box 800, Riyadh 11421, Saudi Arabia.
² Engineering Management, College of Engineering, Prince Sultan University, P.O. Box 66833, Riyadh 11586, Saudi Arabia.
³ Institute for Composite Materials (IVW GmbH), Technical University of Kaiserslautern, 67663 Kaiserslautern, Germany.
⁴ Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering Department, College of Engineering, University of Sharjah, Sharjah 27272, UAE.

Abstract

The concept of microfibrillar composites (MFCs) is adopted to produce composites of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fiber-reinforced polypropylene (PP) materials. The two polymers were dry mixed with PET content ranging from 22 to 45 wt%. The PET has been used as a reinforcement to improve the mechanical properties of composites. The relationship between the morphology of the MFC structure and the mechanical behavior of the MFC filament was investigated. Analysis of the structure and mechanical behavior helped to understand the influence of the stretching ratio, extruder-melt temperature, stretching-chamber temperature, and filament speed.

Keywords: PP/PET microfibrillar composites; automotive component; recycling; waste management.