Surface damage behavior during scratch deformation of mineral reinforced polymer composites

Abstract The surface damage behavior during scratch deformation of neat and wollastonite reinforced ethylene–propylene and polypropylene polymeric materials with significant differences in ductility was studied using electron microscopy in association with scratch deformation parameters and local crystallinity characteristics obtained from atomic force microscopy. Under identical conditions of scratch tests, the decrease in resistance to scratch damage and stress whitening of polymeric materials followed the sequence: wollastonite-reinforced polypropylene (PP-W) ≅ wollastonite-reinforced ethylene–propylene (EP-W) > neat polypropylene (PP) > neat ethylene–propylene copolymer (EP). The improved resistance to scratch damage of mineral reinforced polymeric materials is attributed to the effective reinforcement by micrometer-sized wollastonite particles that increase the tensile modulus of the polymeric materials and restrict plastic deformation of the polymer matrix. Scratching of neat and wollastonite-containing EP copolymers involved periodic parabolic scratch tracks containing voids, which transformed to distinct zig-zag scratch tracks on reinforcement with micrometric wollastonite particles. The enhanced plastic flow in neat EP is facilitated by high ductility of the material and ability to nucleate voids, while in EP-W the plastic flow is suppressed because of reinforcement effect of wollastonite. On the other hand, zig-zag periodic scratch tracks were observed in both neat PP and PP-W, but the scratch tracks were not clearly discernible on reinforcement of PP with wollastonite. The resistance to scratch deformation is discussed in terms of tensile modulus, elastic recovery, scratch hardness, and reinforcement–matrix interaction.