• Journal of the Korea Furniture Society
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.137-144
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• 2016

Wood plastic composite (WPC) is a green composite made of wood flour and thermoplastics to provide better performance by removing the defects of both wood and plastics. However, relatively low thermal stability and poor fire resistance of wood and plastics included in WPC have been still issues in using WPC as a building material for interior applications. This study investigated the effect of environmentally-friendly flame retardants (EFFRs) on the mechanical, thermal, morphological, and water absorption properties of wood flour (WF)/talc/polypropylene (PP) composites in comparison with neat PP. The whole EFFRs-filled WF/talc/PP composites showed higher values in flexural strength, flexural modulus, and impact strength compared to neat PP. In thermal properties, aluminum hydroxide (AH)-filled composite showed a $36^{\circ}C$ reduction in maximum thermal decomposition temperature ($T_{max}$) compared to neat PP, but magnesium hydroxide (MH) played an important role in improving thermal stability of filled composite by showing the highest $T_{max}$. From this research, it can be said that MH has potentials in reinforcing PP-based WPCs with improvement of thermal stability.