Utilization of Corncob and Poplar in Wood Plastics Nano Composites

The possibility of using agricultural lignocellulosic waste as a complementary raw material for the production of wood composite products can have a good economic justification. This will be possible if the manufactured product has the desired and standard quality, however, considering that the type of wood material can have a determining effect on the physical and mechanical properties of the final product, therefore, conducting laboratory and research studies in order to recommend A raw material is essential for consumption in industry. The use of agricultural lignocellulosic waste in wood composite products industries has been the subject of various research activities in different parts of the world in recent years. In this research, in order to improve the mechanical and physical properties of wood-plastic, nanoclay particles have been used as reinforcements and corncob wastes have been used with poplar wood.

The amount of polypropylene and combination of materials were 60 wt% and 40 wt% respectively. The Nano-clay was added in three levels 0, 2 and 4 wt% and the amount of coupling agent was fixed and set to 2 wt% for all treatments. The control samples were made using poly propylene material. 

The results showed that the tensile and flexural strengths were increased by the addition 25 corncob and 75 poplar wt% particles. For tensile and flexural modulus, adding 2 wt% of nano-clay led to an increase in strength and modulus but there was a decrease when 4 wt% nano-clay was used. The impact strength increased by adding nano-clay

According to the mechanical and physical properties of all the treatments, the samples which were made of 25 corncob and 75 poplar wt% particle with 2 wt% of Nano-clay had better results compared to other samples.