engleski

Examining the miscibility and processability of PLA with waste paper particles

Background: Part of the printing process in the printing company is paper cutting, which generates waste material in the form of shredded paper (paper dust and waste paper) that cannot be recycled or used to make new paper and generates disposal costs. Objective: To examine the possibility of mixing waste paper with polymer materials and to create a mixture that would yield a material that could be processed by extrusion or injection molding. Methods: Paper particles were sifted through various sieve openings. 15 and 20% of paper of a certain particle size was mixed with PLA. The mixtures of PLA and paper were extruded. Plates were produced from an extruded mixture of paper and PLA by compression molding. Specimens were cut from the plates. Flexural properties were tested on the universal testing machine. Results: With the addition of paper particles, a decrease in flexural properties was observed with respect to the properties of pure PLA. There was no major difference between the flexural properties regarding the paper particle sizes, although the specimens with larger paper particles exhibited better flexural properties, which could be the result of better mixing, i.e. double passage of the mixture through the extruder. Conclusion: The research showed that PLA and waste paper particles can be successfully mixed and processed. Regardless of the significantly bigger particle size, the mixture with larger paper particles showed greater homogeneity after passing through the extruder nozzle twice. Further research should be focused on increasing the proportion of waste paper in the polymer matrix and obtaining as homogeneous a mixture as possible.

Biopolymers ; mixing ; paper ; PLA

nije evidentirano