Effect of Material Properties on the Foaming Behaviors of PP-Based Wood Polymer Composites Prepared with the Application of Spherical Cavity Mixer

Abstract

For the low weight and high strength, the microcellular extrusion foaming technology was applied in the preparation of polypropylene (PP)-based wood polymer composites, and the spherical cavity mixer was used to construct an experimental platform for the uniform dispersion of wood flour (WF). The effects of PP molecular configuration on the composite properties and cell morphology of samples were also investigated. The experimental results indicated that the application of a spherical cavity mixer with a cavity radius of 5 mm could effectively improve the mixing quality and avoid the agglomeration of WF. In addition, compared with the branched molecule, the linear molecule not only increased the melting temperature by about 10 °C, but also endowed composites with a higher complex viscosity at a shear rate lower than 100 s−1, which contributed to the cell morphology of more microporous samples.