Abstract

The use of polymers in many products have increased tremendously in the past few years leading to an increase in the amount of plastic waste generated, which in return became a huge problem. There are several ways to handle these wastes including; landfilling, chemical recycling, mechanical recycling and incineration. In Egypt mechanical recycling takes place in order to re-use these polymers in new products. The concern of this thesis is to try to find solution for some of the unused wastes by mechanically recycling them. The research aims to modify the properties of one of the most available polymers which is Polypropylene (PP) and also the recycled PP by the addition of some additives and use these new blends of the virgin PP and recycled PP to substitute other expensive materials like Polycarbonate (PC) to be used in different applications like the garden spot light and the three phase circuit breaker box .... etc.

These additives are: flame retardant (FR), impact modifier (IM), Ultra Violet stabilizers (two kinds UVA and HALS) and antioxidant. The effects of these additives on the mechanical and non-mechanical prope1ties of the polymers were studied to choose the best blend combination for the virgin PP and recycled PP. The concluding results came up with the following formula for virgin PP as well as recycled PP:

Virgin PP + 8% FR+ 1% IM+ 0.5% UVA+ I% HALS+ 0.25% Antioxidant

Recycled PP+ 6% FR+ 2% IM+ 0.5% UVA+ I% HALS+ 0.25% Antioxidant

These blends were tested for flammability, tension, impact resistance, UV radiations, melt flow index and chemical resistance. Different percentages of glass powder were added to these two blends where I 0% proved to give the best results for the different percentages under tension. Cost analysis was conducted on the two blends to compare it with PC taking in consideration the different densities of the polymers. It showed that recycled PP blend was the cheapest followed by the virgin PP blend then the PC where its cost was 60% more than that of the recycled PP blend.

Department

Mechanical Engineering Department

Degree Name

MS in Mechanical Engineering

Date of Award

Spring 2-1-2007

Online Submission Date

1-1-2006

First Advisor

Salah M. ElHaggar

Second Advisor

Mervat Shenouda

Committee Member 1

Shakinaz Taha

Committee Member 2

Hanadi Salem

Committee Member 3

Amr Serag El Din

Document Type

Thesis

Extent

141 leaves :

Library of Congress Subject Heading 1

Plastic scrap.

Library of Congress Subject Heading 2

Plastics

Rights

The American University in Cairo grants authors of theses and dissertations a maximum embargo period of two years from the date of submission, upon request. After the embargo elapses, these documents are made available publicly. If you are the author of this thesis or dissertation, and would like to request an exceptional extension of the embargo period, please write to thesisadmin@aucegypt.edu

Call Number

Thesis 2006/125

Location

mgfth

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