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Abstract:
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Ash-based polymer composites are assuming
increasing importance because of the pollutant potential,
fine particle size, and low price of ash. Fly ash and
rice husk ash are two prominent ash materials on which
some investigations have already been done for potential
use in polymer composites. This article highlights the
results of a study on the use of wood ash in HDPE. Wood
ash is mainly a mixture of various metallic compounds
and some silica. Here, the characterization of wood ash
has been done with the help of XRD, ICPAES, light scattering
based particle size analysis, FTIR, and SEM. The
results show that wood ash particle size has an average
value of 293 nm, much lower than other categories of ash.
When blended with HDPE in the presence of a compatibilizer,
wood ash gives rise to vastly improved mechanical
properties over that of the base polymer. The results
prove that wood ash is a valuable reinforcing material for
HDPE and the environmental pollution due to wood ash
can be solved in a most profitable way by this technique. |