The effect of kaolin modification of silane coupling agents on the properties of the polyethylene composites

This paper shows the results of using the modified kaolin by silane coupling agents in HDPE composite and the effect of surface modifications of fillers on the properties of polyethylene composites. In the first stage pure and modified kaolin was subjected to a number of tests in order to determine the backfill density, water and paraffin oil absorbability, the surface area and pore volume, the morphology of their grains, thermal analysis and the FT-IR spectroscopy. In the second stage the composites, which were moulded into the samples that could be subjected to further tests, were produced. The samples were characterised by the determination of the hardness according to Shore, the elasticity modulus, the tensile strength and tearing strength. The modification of the kaolin surface has resulted in a substantial improvement of the strength parameters of the obtained polyethylene composites.