Wollastonite is a functional filler that has great potential to be used in thermoplastic composites, replacing more expensive reinforcement such as glass fiber. Wollastonite-reinforced polymer composite materials have attracted the attentions from research field and industries due to their biocompatibility and reinforcing ability in polymers. Due to the relatively high aspect ratio and hardness, wollastonite is able to improve the tensile and flexural strength of polymer composites. Many researches have been conducted to determine various properties of wollastonite reinforced polymer composites such as mechanical, flammability, thermal, and tribological properties in order to explore their potential in various applications. This review will focus on mechanical properties of wollastonite reinforced thermoplastic composites. Overall, it can be concluded that the properties of wollastonite-filled polymer composites are the function of filler content, adhesion interactions of wollastonite particles with polymer matrix, size and shape of wollastonite particles.Further research and development are needed to widen its application, and these include the use of nano-size wollastonite which can be produced synthetically as functional filler in thermoplastics. K E Y W O R D Scomposites, mechanical properties, thermoplastic, wollastonite

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Natural fibers are rich in cellulose and they are a cheap, easily renewable source of fibers with the potential for polymer reinforcement. The presence of large amounts of hydroxyl groups makes natural fibers less attractive for reinforcement of polymeric materials. Composites made from polystyrene (PS)/styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) blend and treated rice husk powder (RHP) were prepared. The RHP was treated by esterification and acetylation. A similar series of composites was also prepared using maleic anhydride-polypropylene (MA-PP) as a coupling agent. The processing behavior, mechanical properties, effect of thermooxidative ageing, and surface morphology of untreated and chemically modified RHP were studied. There was a decrease in tensile strength (except MA-PP composites), elongation at break, and Young's modulus in chemically treated RHP composites. The postreaction process during thermooxidative ageing enhanced the tensile strength and Young's modulus of the esterified and MA-PP composites. Acetylation treatment was effective in reducing the percentage of water absorption in RHP/PS-SBR composites. In general chemically treated RHP/PS-SBR composites and MA-PP showed a better matrix phase and filler distribution. However, the degree of filler-matrix interaction was mainly responsible for the improvement of mechanical properties in the composites.