Effects of the surface treatment of wollastonite on the tensile and flow properties for reinforced polypropylene composites

The effects of the filler content and its surface treatment on the tensile and flow properties of the polypropylene (PP) composites filled with wollastonite (CaSiO3) were investigated. The results showed that the introduction of the filler could reinforce the PP resin, while the influence of the filler surface treatment on the tensile and flow property was insignificant. The melt volume flow rate (MVR) of the composites decreased nonlinearly, while the Young's modulus increased nonlinearly with increasing filler weight fraction (phi(w)); the tensile strength and tensile fracture strength increased significantly when phi(w) was <10% and then decreased slightly with increasing phi(w). The elongation at break decreased significantly when phi(w) was <10% and then decreased slightly with the increase of phi(w). Moreover, the Young's modulus was estimated using the equation published earlier, and a good agreement was shown between the predicted data and the measured data.