Comparative study of volcanic particle and calcium carbonate filler materials in HDPE for thermal and mechanical properties

Usage potential of volcanic particles (VPs) in high‐density polyethylene (HDPE) composites against traditional calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) was investigated for thermal and mechanical properties. HDPE composites were prepared by melt compounding and injection molding processes with various filler contents such as 6, 12, 18, and 24 wt%. Thermal properties such as melting behavior and thermal expansion behavior were analyzed by differential scanning calorimeter and dilatometry machine; respectively. In addition, mechanical properties such as tensile modulus, tensile strength and elongation at break parameters were investigated with tensile tests. After the experimental results it was shown that the use of VPs had a much larger effect in improving mechanical properties and in reducing coefficient of thermal expansion values of HDPE composites, compared with the use of CaCO₃ particles. It was determined that maximum levels of thermal properties which were obtained with higher contents of CaCO₃ were sufficiently achieved with lower contents of VPs such as 6 wt%. POLYM. COMPOS., 39:E1900–E1907, 2018. © 2018 Society of Plastics Engineers