CHARACTERIZATION OF LOW-DENSITY POLYETHYLENE WASTE FILLED WITH PALM KERNEL SHELL

All over the world, polyethylene wastes has been found littered on the streets of most communities and states. Palm kernel shell (agricultural waste) constitutes dirt and environmental pollution. The aim of this research was to study the potentials of palm kernel shell (PKS) filler as reinforcement for low density polyethylene (LDPE) waste. LDPE-Palm kernel shell composites of varying ratio (100:0, 90:10, 80:20, 70:30, 60:40, 50:50) of LDPE to PKS respectively were produced using the compression moulding technique. Mechanical properties such as water absorption, hardness, young's modulus and tensile strength of the composites were found to increase with increasing PKS loading. The results showed that composites containing 40% of PKS gave the highest tensile strength corresponding to 18.42MPa. The results also indicated that the composites with 50% filler loading gave the highest hardness of 84.25A and water absorption rate which stood at 3.1%. The elongation at break was found to decrease with increasing filler content. The scanning electron micrograph (SEM) obtained revealed that the composites with 20% and 50% palm kernel shell had voids and surface cracks.