Effect of wood flour content on the thermal, mechanical and dielectric properties of poly(vinyl chloride)

Full Paper: Several composite formulations of poly(vinyl chloride)/olive wood flour (PVC/WF) were manufactured by dry-blending PVC, wood flour, plasticizer and other processing additives in a high-intensity mixer. The dry-blended compounds were calendered into film samples (T = 180degreesC, calendered time = 8 min). The films obtained are cut into normalized samples for thermal, mechanical, and dielectric characterization. The results obtained show that stress as well as strain at break decrease sharply as the wood flour content increases. On the other hand, this filler content has little influence on the glass transition temperature. It decreases the temperature of decomposition setting and retards the PVC thermal decomposition. It increases permittivity as well as dielectric losses. The thermal stability, as measured by thermogravimetry (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) methods, is good enough to permit processing of these types of PVC compounds using conventional processing techniques and temperatures under 210degreesC.