Abstract: High wood-flour-content filled PE composites were manufactured via extrusion, with a recipe of 70 wt% wood flour, 27 wt% PE-HD plus maleic anhydride grafted PE (PE-g-MAH), and 3 wt％ lubricant. The mechanical properties and water absorption of the PE/wood flour composites were investigated. The addition of PE-g-MAH increased the flexural strength, toughness, and tensile strength of the composites significantly, which were increased from 30.0 to 60.0 MPa, 3.94 to 14.1 kJm-2, and 12.5 to 34.7 MPa, respectively. Water absorption was decreased from 2.51 to 0.04 wt%. FTIR indicated that ester bonds were formed between wood flour and PE-g-MAH.

Key words: polyethylene-graft-maleic anhydride, recycle high-density polyethylene, extrusion, wood plastic composites, property