Mechanical and Thermal Properties of Environment Friendly Composite Based on Mango's Seed Shell and High-Density Polyethylene

摘要

Lignocellulosic additives from agroindustrial waste have been used to produce polymer composites with different properties, thus contributing to sustainable development, with a reduction in the consumption of nonrenewable natural raw materials, besides the use and recovery of these wastes. Among the most used vegetable fibers, the fibers of sisal, coconut, curau, bamboo, "pinus", banana, and others stand out. Mango is one of the most important tropical fruits, Brazil being one of the largest producers in the world. Considering this scenario, the proposal of the present study consists in the use of fibers, previously benefited from the mango's core, in the production of composites based on high density green polyethylene (Green-HDPE) as polymer matrix. The results showed that the addition of 13 wt% of mango's seed shell (MSS) produced composites with higher stiffness in relation to neat Green-HDPE, even without the presence of a coupling agent. However, the SEM micrographs revealed that the interaction between filler and matrix was not so good. The Young's modulus values of the Green-HDPE/MSS composites were compared to theoretical values obtained by the rule mixtures and Halpin-Tsai. Based on a sum of errors squared none of the models used was found to predict the experimental data. The thermogravimetric analysis showed that the addition of MSS filler did not affect the thermal stability of the Green-HDPE matrix.