Compatibility effect of r-ABS/r-HIPS/r-PS blend recovered from waste keyboard plastics: evaluation of mechanical, thermal and morphological performance

The primary aim of this study was to identify the polymers recovered from keyboard waste, and formulate a ternary blend from the recovered polymers, with improved mechanical, thermal and morphological characteristics, and encouraging product-based recycling. The recycling and reuse of polymers recovered from E-waste is one of the prime topics in solid waste management. The major drawbacks of utilizing recycled polymers are its lower mechanical strength. This was majorly evidenced in styrene based polymers such as acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and high impact polystyrene (HIPS). In our case, the polymers ABS, HIPS and polystyrene (PS) were recovered from waste keyboards, and their impact strength was 29 J/m, 42 J/m and 20 J/m respectively. After formulating a ternary blend with PS as a major phase, the impact strength observed was 66 J/m. The thermal stability of the blends also improved from 380℃ to 396℃, after the addition of PS to the blends, but the glass transition temperature had negligible effect. The morphology of ternary blend shows salami structures after the addition of ABS/HIPS blends. This shows that the r-PS morphology had a brittle to ductile transition which leads to the improvement of impact properties.