Effect of plastic wastes as low cost material on some properties of unsaturated polyester

Abstract EN

In this study, plastic wastes named (PET and PVC) were used to prepare polymer matrix composite (PMC) which can be used in different applications.

Composite materials were prepared by mixing unsaturated polyester resin (UP) with plastic wastes, two types of plastic waste were used in this work included polyethylene-terephthalate (PET) and Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) with various weight fractions (0, 5,10,15, 20 and 25%) added as a filler in flakes form.

In this work, some of the tests that were carried out included (tensile, bending, and compressive strength) as mechanical tests, in addition to (thermal conductivity and water absorption) as physical tests.

The values of tensile, compressive strength and Young's modulus of UP increased after the reinforcement with PVC or PET.

Thermal insulation of the composites is significantly higher than that of pure UP.

Although the values of water absorption for composite are higher than pure UP due to the existence of the interface between matrix and filler material.

Also, the low cost of plastic wastes recycling encourage preserving the environment.