Recycling ability of the polypropylene for production of the natural fiber composites

The focus in this work has been put on the possibility to use recycled polypropylene (PP) in production of composites based on renewable raw materials. The materials are kenaf fibers (KF) and rice straw (RS) as reinforcements and PP as matrix. The matrix was recycled once and two times and the fibers were compounded with the recycled matrix. Rice straw /Polypropylene/Coupling agent (RS/PP/CA) and Kenaf/Polypropylene/Coupling Agent (K/PP/CA) composites with fiber content of 30 wt. % and appropriate compatibilizing agent (CA), have been prepared by two steps procedure: extrusion and compression moulding. The processing and material properties have been studied on the composites with recycled matrix and compared to the composites with virgin matrix. The composite strength of composites with recycled PP is similar to that of composites with virgin PP. The thermal stability of recycled PP based composites is very similar to the thermal stability of the composites with virgin matrix. The interfacial adhesion was studied by SEM microphotographs. It shows that adhesion between fibers and matrix in all composites is very good. These composites based on recycled PP matrix show good applicable characteristics as construction materials for housing systems