Mechanical Properties and Water Absorption Behaviour of Virgin/Recycled Polypropylene Wood Waste Composites: A Comparative Analysis of Injection and Compression Moulding

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Abstract

Wood plastic composites (WPC) were formed with wood waste and recycled polymer matrices to address the environmental concerns from the overuse of plastic materials and natural wood products. This study aimed to examine the mechanical and physical properties of WPC produced from two different types of native Indonesian wood before and after immersion in freshwater and seawater. The effects of employing various polymer matrix types of recycled and virgin polypropylene (r-PP and v-PP) produced through two distinct processes, compression moulding (CM) and injection moulding (IM), were examined. An extruder combined the WPC pellets, which were subsequently put into an IM process to fabricate tensile specimens. Statistics indicated that the IM specimens exhibited superior tensile strength and reduced water absorption compared to those produced with CM. The two-way analysis of variance indicated substantial variations in the tensile strength of the WPC based on the type of polymer matrix and wood waste utilised. In IM specimens, the teak wood-based WPC demonstrated superior tensile strength compared to the iron wood-based composites. Conversely, the v-PP matrix exhibited superior mechanical strength in CM specimens compared to r-PP. The tensile strength of v-PP/teakwood and v-PP/ironwood was 20.8 MPa and 21.8 MPa, respectively, while r-PP/teakwood and r-PP/ironwood achieved 17.0 MPa and 16.96 MPa. The types of polymer matrix and wood waste considerably influence the water absorption of the composites, particularly in CM specimens. The results underscore the significant effect of the processing method and the type of composite materials on the performance of WPC.

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