Recycled Household Plastic and Oil Palm Filler Reinforced Epoxy Composite for Lightweight Construction Applications

Polypropylene is extensively used in aerospace, automotive and construction applications due to its versatile properties. This project aims to reduce plastic and oil palm waste and promote the development of strong, sustainable and eco-friendly construction materials. The objective of this project is to develop a sustainable yet high-performance construction material by incorporating polypropylene particles, oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) fibres and oil palm shell (OPS) particles into epoxy composites through the hand lay-up method. The composite specimens undergo ASTM D638 tensile test to determine the tensile properties. The addition of PP particles in varying weights shows decrease in tensile strength, likely due to poor dispersion and compatibility with the epoxy matrix. Incorporating 3 wt% OPEFB fibres with fibre length from 2mm to 4mm improves tensile strength by 2.32% and 23.36% respectively at higher PP particle loadings which are 15 wt% and 25 wt%. Adding 1 wt% and 3 wt% OPS particles improves the tensile strength by 2.96% and 4.68% respectively, in composites with 10 wt% PP particles and 3 wt% OPEFB fibres. The tensile performance may be improved by treating PP particles with compatibilizers such as silane or maleic anhydride grafted polypropylene.