Lantana fiber-filled polypropylene composite

Abstract

Lantana camara is a small perennial shrub species, native to central and South America. The species has established itself in agricultural fields as well as in forest areas of India and has become dominant weed crowding out native species and reducing bio-diversity. So far, Lantana has very limited commercial uses like furniture making and as a source of energy. In order to get rid of its invasion to forest and agricultural areas, it has to be utilized at the industrial scale. Using lantana stems as the source of lignocellulosic fiber in thermoplastic composites is one the potential applications. In this study, Lantana flour-filled polypropylene composites were prepared. Lantana stems were cut, chipped into smaller size, dried and pulverized to get the fine powder. Lantana flour was compounded with polypropylene in a twin-screw extruder using maleic anhydride-grafted polypropylene as the coupling agent. Composites were prepared at varying fiber loading from 10 to 50%, and mechanical properties were investigated. The mechanical tests indicated that the tensile and flexural strength properties increased with the increase in the fiber loading percentage in case of coupled composites. The presence of bark in lantana flour had no significant influence on the strength properties of composites. The properties of lantana-filled composites were found to be comparable with wood and bamboo fiber-filled composites. The study clearly demonstrates the potential utility of lantana stems for wood polymer composites.