Development of commercially viable and high-performance upcycled plastic waste nanocomposites for automotive and electrical industry.

Waste management has become a major concern due to the extensive use of commodity polymers. Nowadays, one of the most widely used commodity polymers is nonwoven PP. The extensive utilization of polypropylene produces a large amount of waste, making their upcycling and recycling the biggest challenge. This research aims to develop an economical nanocomposite by upcycling nonwoven waste for utilization in the automotive and electronic sectors. A two-step melt blending technique was used to prepare polypropylene waste/silica nanocomposites. The nanocomposites formed were characterized by their morphological, mechanical, thermal, rheological, chemical, and electrical properties. From the results, it was concluded that the optimum mechanical, thermal, and chemical resistance properties were achieved for PP-01 formulation showing a 9.95% increase in heat deflection temperature, a 27.57% decrease in the rate of burning, a 5.4% increase in shore D hardness, 26.09% increase in flexural strength, 11.6% increase in melt flow index, and 66.25% increase in solvent resistance as compared to waste polypropylene. At the same time, the best electrical results were obtained at 0.5 wt.% with a 5.36% increase in the breakdown strength. The resistance value increases from 4.67 × 1012 Ω to 2 × 1013 Ω. The overall research shows that optimum mechanical and thermal properties were achieved at 1 wt.% so that the PP-01 formulation can be used effectively for automotive applications. In contrast, maximum electrical resistance was achieved at the PP-0.5 formulation so that this formulation could be effectively used for electrical insulation applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]