INFLUENCE OF INTERACTIONS ON THE TENSILE BEHAVIOR OF POLYSTYRENE FILLED WITH CALCIUM-CARBONATE

Mechanical properties of filled polymers are dependent on a lot of par ameters: matrix properties, particles characteristics (nature, size, s hape, size distribution), constituent volume fraction and particle-par ticle and matrix-filler interactions. In this work, mainly devoted to polymer-filler interactions, the tensile behaviour of calcium carbonat e-filled polystyrene is examined for different kinds of filler surface modification: carboxylic acid adsorption and polystyrene or polybutyl acrylate grafting. Experimental relative tensile strength of the comp osite varies mainly with the matrix proportion in the fracture surface and with the matrix-filler interactions: adhesion level and matrix-pa rticle stress transfer. The model enables the calculation of dewetting angles which are a very good representation of the filler-matrix adhe sion level.