Sugarcane bagasse is an important agricultural crop in the Iran. Approximately 4.3 million tons of bagasse is produced annually in Iran and the production is mainly centered in the southwestern province of Khuzestan 1 . Many composite items comprising natural fibers and plastic are in use in many coun- tries to make various products such as interior and exterior automotive parts, floorings, constructional/non-constructional timbers, confined doors and windows, furniture parts, packing industries, children's playgrounds, enclosures, production of extruded profiles, kitchen cabinets, etc. 2 . Bagasse is the residue after sugarcane stalks being crushed for sap extraction. Appro- ximately 32 % of bagasse is produced for per metric ton of processed sugar cane 3 . Meanwhile, it is one of the most important agricultural fibers and lignocelluloses wastes, which is regularly cultivated in tropical countries, namely Brazil, India, Cuba and some areas of Iran (FAO) 4 . Today, bagasse is used more sustainably as a major raw material for fuel as well as for pulp and paper production in addition to being a reinfor- cement material in value-added composite panel production 3 . A review of literature shows that there are a limited number of useful studies on the use of bagasse fibers for composite pro- duction 5-7 . However, it must be noticed that higher amount of the filler material will reduce impact strength 8,9 . Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of bagasse fiber loading in experimental bagasse type of natural fiber- plastic composites on their mechanical properties and then the parameters such as tensile and impact strength were evalu- ated. NOTE Study on the Tensile and Impact Properties of Bagasse Flour/ Recycled High-Density Polyethylene Composite AMIR HOOMAN HEMMASI Department of Wood and Paper Engineering, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran Corresponding author: E-mail: h_hemmasi@yahoo.com (Received: 15 December 2012; Accepted: 5 July 2013) AJC-13776 In this research, the possibility of using high percentage of lignocellulosic fibers in making natural fiber-thermoplastic composite was studied. For this purpose, the bagasse flour was mixed with recycled high-density polyethylene at three levels of 30, 40 and 50 wt %. MAPE coupling agent was also used in 3 wt %. The results showed that with increasing bagasse flour percentage, tensile strength improved, but impact strength decreased. Key Words: Bagasse flour, Tensile strength, Recycled high-density polyethylene, Impact strength. Bagasse was collected from the supplied by Choob Plastic DEZ Co, 100-mesh bagasse flour was used as filler. Recycled High-Density polyethylene (rHDPE) was provided as granules by Arak Petrochemical Company. The rHDPE has melt flow indices of 23.037 g/10 min at 190 ºC and density of 0.956 g cm -3 . Maleic anhydride grafted polyethylene (PP-g-MA) provided by Solvay with trade name of Priex 20070 (MFI = 7 g/10 min, grafted maleic anhydride 0.1 wt. %) was used as coupling agent. Before the preparation of samples, bagasse flour was dried in an oven at 65 ± 5 ºC for 24 h. Then for manufacturing bagasse-rHDPE composites, bagasse flour, recycled high- density polyethylene and coupling agent based on Table-1 were weighted individually and then mixed in mixer equipment at rotation speed of 1500 rpm in order to get a homogenous mixture. Then blended in a counter-rotating twin-screw extruder (Dr. Collin System). The compounded materials were then grinded to prepare the granules using a pilot-scale grinder. The mix was removed from the mixing bowl, cooled in water and granulated into pellets. The pellets were dried at 105 ºC for 24 h before injection molding. Test specimens were pre- pared by an injection molding machine according to standard ASTM D 638. Measurement of mechanical properties: Tensile test was run according to ASTM D 638 standard. Impact test was also accomplished according to ASTM D 256 standard. Data analysis followed a completely randomized procedure by using statistical software of SPSS in terms of factorial test. Finally, Asian Journal of Chemistry; Vol. 25, No. 13 (2013), 7645-7646 http://dx.doi.org/10.14233/ajchem.2013.14981