ABSTRACT
Today’s world faces many environmental problems, and two of them are plastic wastes and excessive felling. The former is connected with tremendous production and use of plastics in practically all areas of everyday living. The latter arises from people’s demands and desires to be surrounded by natural products, particularly wood. Wood is used in furniture manufacture and also in the construction industry.1,2
The combinations of these materials-synthetic polymers, plastics, and woods-can reduce the environmental problems and also present other
CONTENTS
8.1 Introduction ................................................................................................ 133 8.2 Experimental Details ................................................................................. 135
8.2.1 Materials .......................................................................................... 135 8.2.2 Preparation of Composites ........................................................... 135 8.2.3 Rheological Measurements .......................................................... 136 8.2.4 Differential Scanning Calorimetry ............................................. 136 8.2.5 Tensile Testing ................................................................................ 136 8.2.6 Water Absorption ........................................................................... 136
8.3 Results and Discussion ............................................................................. 137 8.3.1 Rheological Characterization ....................................................... 137
8.3.1.1 Effects of MFI on Viscoelastic Behavior ...................... 137 8.3.1.2 Effects of WF Thermal Treatment and Filler Size ...... 141
8.3.2 Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) .................................. 142 8.3.3 Mechanical Properties .................................................................. 143 8.3.4 Water Absorption ........................................................................... 144
8.4 Conclusions ................................................................................................. 145 References ............................................................................................................. 146
advantages such as low specific weight and better specific strength and stiffness in comparison to glass-reinforced composites.3 From this view, wood fibers provide safer handling and working conditions, and they are less abrasive to mixing and molding equipment.
