Revista CENIC Ciencias Químicas, cilt.46, ss.14-25, 2015 (Hakemli Dergi)
Natural fiber reinforced composites is an emerging area in polymer science. These natural fibers are
low cost fibers with low density and high specific properties. These are biodegradable and nonabrasive. The natural
fiber composites offer specific properties comparable to those of conventional fiber composites. However, in
development of these composites, the incompatibility of the fibers and poor resistance to moisture often reduce the
potential of natural fibers, and these draw backs become critical issue. Wood-plastic composites (WPC) are a
relatively new class of materials and one of the fastest growing sectors in the wood composites industry. Composites
of wood in a thermoplastic matrix (wood–plastic composites) are considered a low maintenance solution to using
wood in outdoor applications. WPCs are normally made from a mixture of wood fiber, thermoplastic, and small
amounts of process and property modifiers through an extrusion process. The main objective of this study was to
investigate the effect of different additives, namely, pine and beech flour, maleic anhydride grafted PP and styrene
ethylene butylenes styrene block copolymera mixture of both on polyolefin /HIPS composite samples. Mixing was
done with twin screw extruder. Subsequently, mechanical and morphological properties were determined.