Development of cellulose based light weight polymer composites

Polymer matrix composites are used in most of the engineering structures today. This type of composite consists of reinforcing materials in polymer matrix. There is an increasing demand for environmentally friendly reinforcing materials to reduce the cost of traditional fibers. Cellulose is a natural polymer material. Cellulose is used as filler for the reinforcement of polymer materials. Microcrystalline cellulose is a branch of cellulose. Objective of this research is to develop and characterize polypropylene and microcrystalline cellulose based composite. Silane surface modification technique was used to modify the cellulose surface. Surface modified cellulose was mixed polypropylene materials with different compositions. Physical and mechanical properties of the developed product were measured by tensile, impact, hardness, density and water absorption tests. According to the experimental results, there is a gradual reinforcing effect with increase of cellulose concentration. Water absorption and hardness results showed increase of water absorption and hardness with increase of cellulose concentration. There is a gradual reduction of density of the develop product with increase of cellulose concentration. 5 wt% sample showed the lowest density value and weight reduction is about 13%. This type of composite can be used for light weight structure design especially in load bearing applications.