Structure Property Relationships of Waste Low-Density Polyethylene/Polystyrene Cow- Horn/Date-Seed Powder Nano Composite

Abstract

To enhance the interfacial interactions between the ground date seed/cow-horn and the waste low density polyethylene/waste polystyrene, the fillers were treated with 5 % sodium hydroxide. The effects of the fillers to the structure of crystalline/amorphous regions of the polymer were characterized using the XRD Diffractometer. The nano range of the filler was determined with the aid of the Zetasizer nano analyzer. The mechanical properties were achieved with the Instron machine. 100 g of the polymer matrix was used as the control sample and each of the polymer matrix was substituted with 50 g, 45 g, 40 g, 35 g, 30 g, 25 g, 20 g, 15 g, 10 g and 5g of date seed powder/Cow horn powder to respectively make up 100 g each. The XRD results on the WLDPE/CH 85/15g recorded the highest crystallinity of92.30 % with crystallinity index of0.916while that for WPS/DS 85/15 was 47.31% crystallinity and 0.113 crystallinity index. The crystallinity percent/crystallinity index for the WPS/DS 85/15 are 47.31% and 0.113. The 85/15% composition for WPS/CH and WPS/DS recorded the highest elastic modulus of 71.04 Mpa and 70.25Mpawhile the 90/10% composition for WLDPE/CH gave an elastic modulus of 27.08 Mpa.Abetter tensile strength results of 46.21 Mpa and 24.84Mpa were observed in the 95/5% composition for WLDPE/CH and WPS/DS and the elongation at break decreased with increasing filler loading in both WPS/CH, WPS/DS and WLDPE/CH. The 90/10% composition gave the highest elongation of 1019%.