Makhlouf A, Satha H, Frihi D, Gherib S, Seguela R2024-02-172024-02-17201642http://dspace.univ-khenchela.dz:4000/handle/123456789/1389Micronic and submicronic mineral fillers recently appeared as efficient reinforcing agents for polyolefins in addition to the benefit of bypassing the exfoliation/dispersion problem encountered in the case of incorporation of nanoscopic fillers such as clay. Submicronic-talc, designated as µ-talc, belongs to this kind of new fillers. This work was aimed at searching to optimize the crystallinity ratio of isotactic polypropylene in the presence of µ-talc in relation to the filler ratio of the composites and the cooling rate from the melt. In order to highlight the efficiency of the µ-talc on the crys- tallization of polypropylene comparison has been made with PP composites containing conventional talc particles. The study has been carried out on samples having µ-talc weight fractions covering the range 3–30%. In the context of optimiz- ing the crystallinity ratio of the polypropylene matrix in the composites, calorimetric experiments have been planned using a full factorial design. The results were statistically processed by analysis of the variance via mathematical models for pre- dicting the crystallinity ratio in relation to the cooling rate and the filler ratio. Contour graphs have been plotted to deter- mine the effect of each parameter on crystallinity. The cooling rate proved to have a significantly stronger influence on crystallinity than the type and content of filler.Article