Mechanical Properties of Rice Husk Biochar Reinforced High Density Polyethylene Composites

Qingfa Zhang; Weiming Yi; Zhihe Li; Lihong Wang; Hongzhen Cai

doi:10.3390/polym10030286

Mechanical Properties of Rice Husk Biochar Reinforced High Density Polyethylene Composites

Polymers (Basel). 2018 Mar 8;10(3):286. doi: 10.3390/polym10030286.

Authors

Qingfa Zhang^{1

2}, Weiming Yi^{3

4}, Zhihe Li^{5

6}, Lihong Wang^{7

8}, Hongzhen Cai^{9

10}

Affiliations

¹ School of Agricultural and Food Engineering, Shandong University of Technology, Zibo 255000, China. zhangqingfacll@126.com.
² Shandong Research Center of Engineering and Technology for Clean Energy, Zibo 255000, China. zhangqingfacll@126.com.
³ School of Agricultural and Food Engineering, Shandong University of Technology, Zibo 255000, China. yiweiming@sdut.edu.cn.
⁴ Shandong Research Center of Engineering and Technology for Clean Energy, Zibo 255000, China. yiweiming@sdut.edu.cn.
⁵ School of Agricultural and Food Engineering, Shandong University of Technology, Zibo 255000, China. lizhihe@sdut.edu.cn.
⁶ Shandong Research Center of Engineering and Technology for Clean Energy, Zibo 255000, China. lizhihe@sdut.edu.cn.
⁷ School of Agricultural and Food Engineering, Shandong University of Technology, Zibo 255000, China. wanglh@sdut.edu.cn.
⁸ Shandong Research Center of Engineering and Technology for Clean Energy, Zibo 255000, China. wanglh@sdut.edu.cn.
⁹ School of Agricultural and Food Engineering, Shandong University of Technology, Zibo 255000, China. chzh666666@126.com.
¹⁰ Shandong Research Center of Engineering and Technology for Clean Energy, Zibo 255000, China. chzh666666@126.com.

Abstract

Rice husk biochar was utilized to reinforce high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and to prepare biochar/plastic composites (BPC) by the extrusion method. Morphologies, non-isothermal crystallization behavior, and mechanical properties of the composites were investigated. The SEM (scanning electron microscope) showed that HDPE was embedded into the holes of the rice husk biochar. The DSC (differential scanning calorimeter) showed that biochar could reduce the crystallization rate and the higher the content of rice husk biochar, the slower the crystallization rate. Significantly, the bending and tensile strength of BPC could reach 53.7 and 20 MPa, far beyond WPC (wood plastic composites). With the increase of filler content, BPC were still stronger than WPC, although the impact strength of BPC and WPC all showed a general decline in the trend. The strong interaction was achieved by the utilization of rice husk biochar to reinforce HDPE.

Keywords: DSC; HDPE; composites; mechanical properties; rice husk biochar.

Abstract

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