DEVELOPMENT AND CHARACTERIZATION OF CaCO₃-CALCINATED COW BONE-DERIVED CaO/P₂O₅ PARTICULATE HYBRID REINFORCED POLYPROPYLENE COMPOSITES

Hybrid reinforced bio-composite material was developed in this study from polypropylene, calcium carbonate and waste cow bone. The cow bone was calcinated, pulverised and sieved to obtain 3 particle sizes (< 53, 63 and 75 μm) that were added to CaCO₃ to form hybrid composites. The composites were developed with hot compression moulding machine using predetermined proportions of the composite constituents. XRF analysis shows that the cow bone is primarily CaO/P₂O₅ while XRD revealed higher crystallinity in < 53 μm particle sizes. Mechanical and wear properties of the CaCO₃/calcinated cow bone-derived CaO/P₂O₅ particulate reinforced polypropylene (PP) composites were evaluated as a function of the varied calcinated cow bone (CCB) particulates. The result showed that the mechanical and wear properties of the hybrid reinforced CaCO₃-CCB-PP composites were mostly enhanced when < 53 μm was added to the other common additives (CaCO₃ and PP) with the exception of ultimate tensile strength which was enhanced by 63 μm. The improvement in all these properties mainly for 3 - 6 wt. % reinforced composites was due to the incorporation of CaCO₃ and calcinated cow bone-derived CaO/P₂O₅. The results displayed an almost linear relationship between the wear properties and CCB both in terms of mass and particle size.