Effects of Green Reinforcement Strategies on Mechanical Properties of High Volume Polymers

• Main Author: Gibbon, Luke Ryan
• Format: Others
• Published: North Dakota State University 2017
• Subjects: Filler; Polyurethane; PVC; Regrind
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10365/26664

Green reinforcement in polymer systems have shown great promise in reducing cost, negative environmental effects, and dependency on nonrenewable resources. Both natural fillers and composite regrind can increase mechanical performance, while reducing new resin inputs for polymer based components. PVC and Polyurethane foam are widely used in North America in high volumes. Ground corn cob greatly increased the modulus of a flexible PVC system while minimally reducing maximum strength. The corn cob also showed signs of being a suitable filler in a polyurethane foam composite panel at low concentrations with minimal changes in mechanical performance. Polyurethane composite regrind illustrated great potential being used in new polyurethane composite panels with acceptable material properties. Replacing just a few percent of polyurethane and PVC with green reinforcement could reduce new production of these polymers by millions of pounds per year in North America alone.