Wood Flour Treated with Pickering Emulsion Could Improve Its Composites with High-Density Polyethylene?

Abstract

Silica synergistically stabilized paraffin Pickering emulsion is applied to modify wood flour (WF) for preparing wood/polymer composites. The effect of Pickering emulsion on properties of the WF and its composites with high-density polyethylene (HDPE) is investigated. The impregnation of paraffin Pickering emulsion could significantly improve the WF dispersion in HDPE matrix, resulting in increased melt flow index (MFI). It increased from 1.3 g/10 min (control) to 2.1 g/10 min (Pickering treatment) due to the lubrication of paraffin and rolling friction provided by silica nanoparticles. Owing to the well distribution of WFs and silica, the mechanical properties of the composites were enhanced obviously. The optimal tensile strength and impact strength increased 23% (18.28 MPa) and 32% (14.16 kJ/m 2 ), respectively. It also could be attributed to the improved interfacial compatibility due to the incorporation of surfactants (Span 80 and Tween 80), which acted as a coupling agent. Keywords: paraffin Pickering emulsion; wood flour treatment; high-density polyethylene; wood/polymer composites; properties analysis 368 article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons by 369 Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).