Abstract: The wood-plastics composites (WPC) were prepared via compression molding using a blend of high density polyethylene (PE-HD) and maleic anhydride grafted polyethylene (MAPE) as the matrix and wood flour as filler. The effects of the contents of MAPE on the impact strength of the matrix and WPC were investigated. It was shown that the change of MAPE contents had significant influence on the impact strength of the matrix and WPC. When the contents of wood flour was 30 %, the impact strengths of WPC decreased with increasing MAPE contents; whereas at 70 % of wood flour loading, the impact strength of WPC increased with increasing MAPE contents.

Key words: maleic anhydride grafted polyethylene, wood-plastics composite, impact strength, high density polyethylene