RATING OF SOME PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF POLYETHYLENE/IROKO WOOD DUST COMPOSITE

Abstract

There is a growing need for construction material resources, as well as the concern for maintaining a safe environment for durable development, it is necessary that more materials that are environmentally friendly should be developed. Water absorption, morphology, flammability and hardness test of Polyethylene/Iroko wood dust composite was evaluated. High water absorption was observed in composite made from virgin high density polyethylene film, which varied from 43.2 to 98.2% after 2 h and 75.7 to 172.4% after 24 h water immersion, whereas the composite made from waste high density polyethylene film varied from 42.5 to 90.9% and 69 to 143.6% after 2 h and 24 h water immersion respectively.  Low water absorption was observed in composite made from waste high density polyethylene film. Flammability results showed that ignition time and flame propagation time increased with increasing fibre content for both composite types.  At constant polyethylene. The hardness decreases as the fibre increases from (61.3 to 20 MPa) for virgin high density polyethylene film base composite. For waste high density polyethylene film base composite, the waste high density polyethylene composite is harder than the virgin high density polyethylene composite. Scanning electron microscope shows that most of the fibres and the matrix do not give apparent signs of fibres being pullout, indicating an improved interface bond for the virgin high density polyethylene/Iroko composite.