Mechanical properties of wollastonite reinforced thermoplastic composites: A review

Abstract

Wollastonite is a functional filler that has great potential to be used in thermoplastic composites, replacing more expensive reinforcement such as glass fiber. Wollastonite-reinforced polymer composite materials have attracted the attentions from research field and industries due to their biocompatibility and reinforcing ability in polymers. Due to the relatively high aspect ratio and hardness, wollastonite is able to improve the tensile and flexural strength of polymer composites. Many researches have been conducted to determine various properties of wollastonite reinforced polymer composites such as mechanical, flammability, thermal, and tribological properties in order to explore their potential in various applications. This review will focus on mechanical properties of wollastonite reinforced thermoplastic composites. Overall, it can be concluded that the properties of wollastonite-filled polymer composites are the function of filler content, adhesion interactions of wollastonite particles with polymer matrix, size and shape of wollastonite particles. Further research and development are needed to widen its application, and these include the use of nano-size wollastonite which can be produced synthetically as functional filler in thermoplastics.