Mechanical and Thermal Properties of Waste Bio-Polymer Compound by Hot Compression Molding Technique

Abstract

The demand for bio-polymer compound (BPC) has attracted attention in various applications from industrial to medical. Therefore, the mechanical and thermal stability properties of recycling industrial waste BPC are very important to investigate. The waste BPC for this study is based on a mixture of hydroxylated waste cooking oil with hardeners to produce waste bio-polymer foam (WBF). The granulate of WBF was cast into the mold until all spaces were evenly filled and compacted into a homogeneous shape and thickness at 30–45 bar for 2 hours using hot compression molding. This method of BPC fabrication results in a tensile and flexural strength of 4.89 MPa and 18.08 MPa respectively. Meanwhile, the thermal stability of laminated BPC was conducted using a thermal gravimetric analyzer (TGA), and the first degradation of the soft segment occurred at 263°C, then subsequently the second degradation occurred at 351°C and the last at 416°C.