Evaluation of the Mechanical and Morphological Properties of a Rice Husk Mixture with Recovered Polypropylene and High-density Polyethylene, Using Sulfur-silane as the Coupling Agent

Abstract

Agro-industrial and plastic waste constitute a significant percentage of generated solid waste, leading to serious environmental problems and elevated final disposal costs for industries and municipal final disposal systems, due to its large volume and limited amount of available use options. It is for this reason that this research article focuses on using rice husk (RH), an agro-industrial byproduct, mixed with polypropylene (PP) and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) found in household solid waste, using the sulfur-silane coupling agent to aid the interfacial adhesion between the materials. This mixture was created through mechanical recycling techniques, for a subsequent evaluation of its mechanical properties, specifically tension, flexural and impact tests, in addition to examining its morphological characteristics via a scanning electron microscope (SEM).