Development of poly(vinyl chloride)/agricultural fiber composites

Abstract

In this research, wood substituted composites were produced by the usage of poly (vinyl chloride) and agricultural fiber. Moreover, this research were studied the effects of content, size, and type of agricultural fiber on mechanical, thermal, and water absorption properties of composites by the usage of agricultural fiber as corncob (CC), bagasse (BG), and rice straw (RS) as fillers of PVC with different fiber contents (20, 40, 60 phr) and fiber size (small (S), large (L)). PVC with other additives (PVC dry blend) and agricultural fiber were mixed in a two-roll mill followed by compression molding. The results showed high content and small size of fiber can increase the modulus, heat distortion temperature (HDT), and vicat softening temperature of composites. It showed tensile and flexural modulus of these composites increased between 45-52%, and 30-73%, respectively compared to PVC dry blend value. However, these composites also showed high amount of water absorption. The amount of water absorption of composites with 60 phr of fiber shows value between 6-9 wt%. Small-sized fiber increases the stiffness of composite better than that with large-sized fiber. Moreover, these composites adsorb less amount of water than that with large-sized fiber. However, size of fiber did not show significant effect on thermal properties of PVC/Agricultural fiber composites. Among three types of agricultural fiber, the composites with rice straw as filler showed the best results in modulus and thermal properties and they also showed the highest amount of water absorption.