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Deformation and Fracture Behavior of PP/Ash Composites

In the present work, the deformation and fracture behavior of PP/ash composites with different ash content was investigated. The effect of a silane coupling agent was also analyzed. From uniaxial tensile tests, an increase in the stiffness with ash content was found as a result of the incorporation of the stiffer filler within the PP matrix. On the other hand, a decrease in tensile strength and strain at break with filler loading was observed. This result was attributed to the increased number of debonded large particles with filler content, which subsequently led to the formation of critical-size flaws. On the other side, the composites displayed higher values of fracture parameters than the matrix as a result of the development of a particle induced toughening mechanism. However, fracture properties were also found to decrease with ash content. This could be attributed to the increase in the number of critical-size flaws that induced premature failure. The incorporation of a silane coupling agent in the formulations led to composites with slightly improved tensile and fracture properties. This was probably due to improved interaction between PP and ash in the first case and a better dispersion of ash particles in the matrix and/or changes in the crystallization behavior of PP, in the latter case.