The effects of different content and size of date seeds filler on thermal properties of LLDPE/date seeds (DS) composites
Abstract
The increasing interest of bio-plastic composites in numerous applications makes them important to understand their properties. In this work, the fabrication of LLDPE / date seeds (DS) composites at different DS content (5, 10, 15 and 20 wt%) and size (125 -250, 250 - 500 and 500 - 1000 µm) was done using extrusion and injection molding process respectively. The thermal properties of these composites were evaluated using thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) respectively. Results show that the addition of DS, particularly (20% wt.) improved the thermal stability of the composites more than other composites. At the same DS content, the fine size of DS showed better thermal stability due to the high contact surface area of date seeds particles, which in turn increased the interfacial adhesion between filler and polymer matrix. DSC results show that there is no observed change in the melting temperature (Tm) and crystallization temperature (Tc) of the composites. However, the crystallinity has slightly decreased as DS increase in the composites. This might contributed to the high incorporation between LLDPE matrix and DS filler, which in turn hindered the molecular motion of matrix in the super-cooling melt during cooling process.
- Publication:
-
Green Design and Manufacture: Advanced and Emerging Applications
- Pub Date:
- November 2018
- DOI:
- 10.1063/1.5066665
- Bibcode:
- 2018AIPC.2030b0024A