investigation on mechanical properties of polypropylene composite reinforced with tobacco stalk

tobacco is planted extensively in golestan province and high volume of its stem wastes remained without using and it is burned. as a useful purpose of these wastes and to reduce the environmental problems, in this the mechanical properties of polypropylene composites reinforced with tobacco stalk flour were studied. for this purpose, the tobacco stalk flour as the reinforcement, in three levels of 30, 40 and 50%, maleic anhydride grafted polypropylene as a coupling agent in two levels of 4 and 6% as variable factors were used. the results showed that with increasing the amount of tobacco stalk flour, tensile stress decreased significantly but tensile modulus increased. also increasing the amount of coupling agent improved tensile strength. bending strength and bending modulus increased with increasing the amount of tobacco stalk flour and coupling agent. in the case of impact strength, no significant effects were observed between the different levels of the treatments. therefore it is recommended to use50 % tobacco stalk flour as a natural and biodegradable material with 6% coupling agent to make wood-plastic composite with desired mechanical properties.