Processes, Vol. 13, Pages 809: Mechanical Recycling of Crosslinked High-Density Polyethylene (xHDPE)

Processes doi: 10.3390/pr13030809

Authors:
Ahmad
Rodrigue

This study introduces a mechanical recycling technique for crosslinked high-density polyethylene (xHDPE) using cryogenic pulverization and compression molding. This method is shown to effectively transform xHDPE into valuable fillers for recycled HDPE (rHDPE(B)) sourced from recycled bottles using different concentrations (15–60%) and particle sizes (0–250 µm, 250–500 µm, and 500–1000 µm). In particular, the recycling method significantly reduced the gel content from 60.5% to 41.8% for the 0–250 µm particles, indicating partial decrosslinking. Morphological analysis revealed good interfacial adhesion between rHDPE(B) and recycled xHDPE (r-xHDPE), improving the overall performance and resulting in a balanced combination of properties from both materials. The r-xHDPE samples exhibited improved thermal stability. While particle size had minimal effect on material properties, increasing its concentration significantly improved impact strength (612%) with a slight (3%) reduction in density at 60% 500–1000 µm particles. This research underscores the possibility of recycling crosslinked polymers and highlights the need for further studies to optimize the material properties and expand the methodology to a wider range of polymers.

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