Recycled Polymer Composites: Futuristic Sustainable Material

Dear Colleagues,

Higher dependency on plastic material due to lightweight and low cost makes it the most used human-made materials other than metals and cement. Unlike other natural materials, the decomposition of plastic material is one of the biggest concerns. Plastic materials such as polypropylene (PP), high-density polyethylene (HDPE), low-density polyethylene (LDPE), polyurethane (PU), and polystyrene (PS) are widely used thermoplastic in the automobile and aerospace industry and contribute a significant part in total plastic waste. Reusability of plastic material without compromising its mechanical and thermal performance is an essential step towards sustainable polymer composite material development.

A significant disadvantage of recycled plastic is brittleness, low impact resistance, and toughness after reheating, melt, and remolding. The internal structure of recycled plastic significantly changed throughout the production process, reflected in the form of heterogeneity and anisotropies to the mechanical properties, limiting the application of recycled polymer composites for various lightweight applications.

Typical processes involving improving or maintaining the mechanical properties of recycled plastic are advanced recycling process, polymer blending, and the addition of nanofillers such as nanofibers, graphene and carbon nanotubes, etc., in the recycled polymer. All the above processes can be achieved by injection and compression molding processes as well as extrusion.

The main aim of this Special Issue is to collect various investigations focused on the processing and recovery of original plastic properties by adding additional polymer and nanomaterials. Papers presenting studies on the effective blending and nanomaterial on the mechanical properties of the recycled composite products and materials are welcome in the Special Issue. Researchers who use a particular agent such as compatibilizer, toughening agents to improve composites' performance are welcomed to submit papers. Authors are encouraged to present new ideas, reusability, and applications to provide a complete framework on these groundbreaking materials and facilitate their use in different structural applications.

Dr. Abhishek Kumar Pathak
Guest Editor

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