Abstract

ABSTRACT

The change in physico-mechanical properties of recycled low-density polyethylene (rLDPE) composites with the incorporation of calcinated palm kernel shell powder was thoroughly investigated through the D-Optimality mixture design of the experiment. In particular, a focus was made on the long-term properties via mechanical and physical parameters of the thermoplastic composites. The mixing method adopted was a two-roll milling method at 150oC operating temperature for 10 minutes. The matrix (rLDPE) was allowed to melt and formed a band around the roll before introducing the filler. The filler was added to the matrix. The addition was gradually through the roll nip with consistent cross-mixing with a cutting knife until a homogeneous mixture of the filler and the recycled polymer was achieved. Composites were produced using calcinated PKs powder as filler ranging from 10% to 50% at 10% loading intervals and then compressed with a a compression moulding machine at 150°C for 5 minutes under a pressure of 2.5 MPa. A correlation between the composite's compositions and properties was reported based on the obtained data. The results showed that thermoplastic composites' properties were significantly affected at p<0.05, and correlation coefficients for the proposed model equation were more than 9.0. Moreover, it was observed that increasing the filler content (CPKs) with a decrease in rLDPE showed better-combined characteristics for optimal selection. Therefore, Optimised variables for producing plastic interlocks have the proposed end use of the composite established at 60.8% rLDPE and 39.2% CPKs. Hence, the study revealed that using calcinated palm kernel shell powder as filler in recycled low-density polyethylene composites (rLDPE) enhances the physico-mechanical properties of the composites and is suitable for the fabrication of plastic interlocks.