Fillers for Polymer Applications

This handbook provides an introduction to and reference information about the science behind the production and use of particulate fillers in polymer applications. Fillers play an important role and are used with practically all types of polymers: thermoplastics, thermosets, elastomers.

Readers will find an introduction to the topic of particulate fillers for polymer applications and their importance. The first chapters describe the use and characteristics of fillers in different polymer types, such as thermoplastics, thermosets and elastomers. The following chapters compile and summarize comprehensive information about different filler materials which find application nowadays, including mineral fillers (for example feldspars, wollastonites, and many more) and inorganic fillers (barium sulphate, or clays), bio-fillers, recycled and sustainable fillers, and fillers for specific applications (for example flame-retardant fillers, fillers for electrically conductive applications, or thermally conductive additives).

Offering key information, compiled by a mixed team of authors from academia and industry, this handbook will appeal to researchers and professionals working on and with particulate polymer fillers alike.

Professor Roger Rothon is an independent consultant and a visiting professor at Manchester Metropolitan University. He has spent over 40 years working in the fields of inorganic filler production, surface modification and filled polymer composites. The first 15 of these were spent in ICI, where he developed new types of coupling agents for silica and calcium carbonates. Later he became technical manager for Flamemag International, where he developed new processes for the manufacture of magnesium hydroxide flame retardants. He is now an independent consultant and also a director of ECOfillers, a company involved in recycling polymers and particulate materials.

Professor Rothon has a number of relevant patent applications and many scientific publications, including a highly regarded book on Particulate Filled Mineral Composites. Through his professorship at Manchester Metropolitan University, he actively engages in research work on filler surface modification.