Effect Of Thermal Treatment On Physical And Chemical Properties Of Recycled Polypropylene

Polypropylene is widely used today in industries and also at home and its production has increase drastically over the years making polypropylene products a major contributor in environmental waste. Therefore, instead of throwing away wasted or unusable polypropylene to where it may cause harm to the environment and the whole biodiversity, recycling comes to rescue. The objective of this study is to determine the change in properties of polypropylene with recycling. For this purpose, the mechanical properties of polypropylene using five recycling generation were determined.

The polypropylene materials were cut into flakes and pretreated before recycled mechanically at 180-2100C with fabricated mold. ASTM D638 type II specimen dimensions was chosen for tensile test. Ultimate tensile stress test relates the mechanical properties such as tensile strength, elastic modulus and percent elongation to failure to the recycling generations.

The curves which were generated prove that the polypropylene properties decrease with recycling. FTIR analysis affirmed that the chemical structures of the material were not affected by the recycling process.

However, the slight decrease in properties can be compensated by adding a virgin polypropylene at a ratio before recycling. Conservative safety factors and plastics additives, filler inclusion can also correct the decrement.
Recycling of plastic materials is effective in conserving the environment and enhancing the life cycle of these materials.