Effects of adding Foreign Plastics or other Inorganic Materials on the Mechanical Properties and related Fracture Surface Morphology

Abstract

Waste LCD units contain 4-43 wt% of various plastics.  Exact statistics regarding Korean domestic flat panel display wastes do not exist but 20-30 million waste LCD and PDP units are expected to accumulate in Korea by 2015.  Each LCD and PDP unit contains 40 and 10 wt% of plastics by weight and recovery of plastics from them is very important to implement EU’s WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) and RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) directives.  Among those plastics, ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene) is mainly used in case material for computer and TV monitors and automobile fenders, costing $200/ton.  On the other hand, PE (Polyethylene) wastes increase significantly in Korea and proper disposal of PE has become an environmental and social issues.   In the present research, PE and glass fiber have been mainly used as additives to investigate their effects on the mechanical properties of ABS.