Investigation on the Mechanical Properties of Polyethylene/Date Palm Wood Flour Composite: The Effect of Filler Content and Type

The effect of the filler content and the different type of wood flour on the mechanical properties of polyethylene- date palm wood flour (DPWF) composite which are gathered from date palm tree annual pruning was studied. The different types of DPWF were stem, leaf and the mixture of stem and leaf. Composites were made at 45, 60 and 75 % by weight filler contents. The particle size was 25-40 mesh and maleic anhydride modified polyethylene was also added at 2% of total weight of each board. Linear Low Density Polyethylene (LLDPE) was used as control in this research. First, the palletized feedstock from DPWF and plastic were provided by a twin screw extruder and then, the compound pellets  were ground and the final boards were made by a hot-press. It was observed that by increasing the filler content, modulus of rupture and tensile strength decreased, while the flexural modulus increased. The tensile strength did not show significant differences as a function of the filler type. The flexural modulus of the boards made from leaf flour, was significantly higher than boards made from mixed and stem flour respectively, while there was no significant difference between these two treatments. The modulus of rupture of the boards made from mixed flour was higher than the boards made from leaf flour but there was no significant difference between them, while there was significant difference between modulus of rupture of the boards made from stem flour with other two treatments.