Particle filled polyolefins with high stiffness and toughness, as used for load bearing components

Mineral fillers have been used very often in the past for improving elastic modulus and temperature resistance of polyolefines, also to the detriment of impact resistance. Very recently it has been pointed out that good fracture toughness can be achieved if an appropriate mechanism is stimulated and a good bonding of the filler particles to the matrix is guarantied. This work shows some interesting results obtained in this field with HDPE (high density polyethylene) and kaolin. In particular the effect of filler content and of adhesion between matrix and filler is considered. A comparison is also made with literature data concerning filled polyolefines (HDPE and PP).