Study of the Technical Feasibility of the Use of Polypropylene Residue in Composites for Automotive Industry

Abstract

Polypropylene (PP) is widely used in short-term use artifacts, rapidly discarded and should partially replace neat PP. In addition, it is one of the polymers most used in the automobile industry. This study shows the technical feasibility of partially substituting neat PP for a post-consumer counterpart (PP r ), as well as adding ground glass (GP), used as filler in the polymer matrix. Mechanical and thermal properties of the recycled blends (PP/PP r ) and composites (PP/PP r /GP) were evaluated. The results demonstrated that the blend with the highest PP r content obtained a statisti-cally significant decline in elastic modulus, but adding 5 wt% of GP to this blend increased this property, achieving a similar value in relation to neat PP. The composite developed may be a promising tailor-made product with properties resembling those of the virgin plastic. Thus, the automotive industry seems to be a good option for the use of PP r and GP composites and blends, without increasing product requirements.