Effects of polymeric matrix on properties of wood–plastic composites with rubberwood flour as filler

This work was carried out on the influence of plastic matrix on the physical properties of wood–plastic composites (WPCs). The WPCs were prepared with five types of plastic as the matrix, namely high-density polyethylene (HDPE), low-density polyethylene (LDPE), polypropylene (PP), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and polystyrene (PS). The results indicated that the density of WPCs linearly decreased with the increasing plastic content. WPCs with PVC provided a maximum density (1.231 g/cm 3 ) whereas WPCs with PP provided a minimum (0.913 g/cm 3 ) density exceeding 0.8 g/cm 3 . The long-term water absorption (WA) and soluble weight loss were consistently high for WPCs made with LDPE with values of 35.37% and 4.29%, respectively. On the other hand, PVC and PP gave slightly lower long-term WA (8.20%) and soluble weight loss (0.36%), respectively indicating PVC and PP were better resistant to moisture. Based on the findings in this study it revealed that the plastic type and wood content significantly affected all properties of the prepared composites in this work. The hardness test results showed that PS and LDPE gave the highest (81.64 HD) and lowest (52.29 HD) hardness values of the WPCs. In addition, the hardness decreased with increasing wood content of WPCs. The WPCs produced in this work were high-density boards that may be beneficial, particularly for structural applications. Graphical abstract