Mechanical properties and environmental assessment of recycled carbon fibre reinforced polypropylene and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene products

In this study, the main objective is to determine effect of recycled carbon fibre (RCF) on the mechanical properties of thermoplastics composites and associated environmental impacts. Such study is important to improve the strength of the composites as previous studies are limited on RCF composites, particularly in environmental aspects. In the compounding stage, extrusion process was carried out by using two different thermoplastics i.e. polypropylene (PP) and acrylonitrile butadience styrene (ABS) mixing with RCF. Particle size and weight loading of RCF were chosen as parameters to be studied. Bonding strength between the RCF and thermoplastics matrix was investigated through tensile and flexural properties. Lastly, the assessment of the products was carried out to determine the environmental impacts. Generally, the incorporation of RCF into PP and ABS plastic increases the tensile and flexural properties of the samples. It can be seen that the addition of rCF significantly improves tensile modulus and flexural strength up to 10 wt% filler loading. From the environmental impact assessment, the ABS products have greater impact in all categories. The usage of rCF reduce the amount of plastic hence leads to lower environmental impacts. The product has a potential to be used in mechanical demanding application particularly those require high flexural strength and tensile modulus properties.