What is it about?
Polypropylene (PP)–waste elastomer blends are particularly attractive as an economical way of producing sustainable materials, relieving the stress on the environment. Although PP is a commodity thermoplastic finding employment in various applications, its relatively low impact strength might be a significant factor limiting the variety of uses in many industries. Extensive consumption of thermoset elastomers has been a worldwide waste disposal problem. Here, we describe a facile, economical method for reuse of waste ethylene-propylene-diene monomer (EPDM) rubber to produce impact resistant blend materials with the PP via a high-shear thermokinetic mixer. In these blends, waste EPDM was used in various concentrations ranging from 20 to 80 wt%, as the remaining part, PP acts as a carrier matrix or a physical binder depending on the concentration in the blend. Briefly, fivefold increase was achieved in the impact resistance of PP by the addition of 60 wt% EPDM waste. The blend with 80 wt% waste EPDM shows characteristics similar to a thermoplastic elastomer. The conclusion of the study is that the blending method is quite effective to produce high-performance blend materials consisting of high concentrations of thermoset waste which addresses the worldwide disposal problem of waste thermoset rubbers.
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Why is it important?
The importance of this work is that it demonstrates an efficient route in recycling a thermoset rubber and underlines how the mechanical and thermal behaviour of EPDM/PP composites changes with respect to waste loading. It is especially important for automotive industry.
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This page is a summary of: Poly(propylene)/waste vulcanized ethylene- propylene-diene monomer (PP/WEPDM) blends prepared by high-shear thermo-kinetic mixer, Journal of Elastomers & Plastics, November 2017, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/0095244317741759.
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