A Study on Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) Sawdust Composites

Sawdust is very useful to replaced wood to meet human essential but sawdust itself has several characteristics that became a barrier that make it cannot be commercially used. Hence, this research project will prepare the sample of low density polyethylene sawdust composite and explore more about the application for the waste of wood and to find out how the polymer can improve the properties of sawdust. In this study two types of parameters had been used. The experiment will be conducted according to the different in the range of sawdust particles size and different composition of the sample. The range of sawdust particles size divided into four which are sample A, B, C and D with different composition of LDPE:sawdust. Several types of tests had been conducted to test on the properties of the LDPE sawdust composites. In water absorption test, sample C with 90:10 compositions shows the best result of 2.18% of weight gained. The density determination shows that sample A with the composition of 90:10 have the best result of 523.89kg/m3 while for thickness swelling determination, sample D with the composition of 90:10 shows the best result of 6.12%. The tensile strength test, shows the best sample is sample C of 90:10 composition loading with the tensile strength value of 5.78 N/mm2 while for flexural test the best sample is also sample C of 90:10 composition loading with a flexural strength of 10.98MPa. For the SEM, it shows that there are differences in the microstructure for different range of sawdust particles size used and different composite loading that affected the mechanical strength of the sample. All the experiment shows the positive result on mechanical and physical properties of the composite with the introduction of LDPE and it can be concluded that sample C with 90:10 composition loading shows the best results. There are higher potential for LDPE sawdust composites to replace wood-based product but several improvement should be implemented in terms of sample preparation and time as well as more research on other type of polymer used should be done.