Utilization of forest and plastic wastes for composite manufacturing using microwave-assisted compression molding for low load applications

Present work explores the utilization of forest waste (pine cone) and plastic waste (recycled HDPE) to fabricate wood plastic composites (WPCs) using microwave-assisted compression molding. The developed WPCs were experimentally subjected to physical, thermal, and mechanical characterization. Physical properties deteriorated when the filler loading level was maximized over the weight percentages due to poor wettability. The thermal study revealed that the melting point of the composites was influenced by filler weight percentage. The composites reinforced with 20 Wt.% filler exhibited the highest tensile, flexural, and impact strength of 20.01 MPa, 20.98 MPa, and 15.79 kJ/m2, respectively. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) micrographs revealed voids, microcracks, and poor filler dispersion were dominantly responsible for composites failure with increased filler weight fraction.