Optical properties of CaCO3-filled poly(ethylene-co-vinyl acetate) films

Abstract Optical properties, such as transmittance and diffuse reflectance in the range of 200–800 nm, of hot-pressed films of poly(ethylene-co-vinyl acetate) filled with up to 10 wt% of calcium carbonate were analyzed. A linear relationship between optical properties and film thickness was found for these composites. In the range of compositions analyzed, transmittance of films decreases with an increasing in the filler content following an exponential law. The amount of decreasing can also be related to the average statistics particle diameter for a constant weight fraction of added filler by a square root law. Diffuse reflectance of the films was very low in the visible zone and increases considerably in the UV zone.