Studi Pembuatan Material Wood Plastic Composite Berbasis Limbah Batang Sawit

Abstract

Wood plastic composite (WPC) is a relatively new material that has many potentialuses. The aim of this research is to study the effect of content and size of oil palmstem particle and content of maleated polypropylene (MAPP) compatibilizer onthe morphology and properties of WPC based on a mixture of oil palm stem par-ticle (BS) and polypropylene (PP). WPC samples were prepared using the rheomix3000 HAAKE mixer at temperature of 180 oC and rotor speed of 60 rpm. Themass ratios of BS/PP were varied at 50/50, 60/40 and 70/30 with the addition ofMAPP of 0, 5 and 7.5% mass. The sizes of the BS were varied at 60 mesh, 80mesh, 100 mesh and 1 cm. As plasticizer was used minarex-H with values of 5%mass. The results showed that the morphology, tensile strength, flexural strengthand water absorption properties were affected by mass ratio of BS/PP, size of BSand content of MAPP in the composite. The best properties of WPC are on BS/PPmass ratio of 60/40, BS particle size of 100 mesh and MAPP content of 5% mass.