ABSTRACT
Mineral fillers are used in polymer materials to improve their mechanical, thermal, flame retardant and processing properties. The production of mineral fillers, such as talc, calcium carbonate (CaCO3) and silica, happens mainly through mining activities and leads to serious environmental effects such as demolishing of limestone caves, reduction of water and air quality, and deforestation. Thus, researchers and the industry are looking into converting waste materials into bio-based mineral fillers to be used as substitute to mineral fillers from non-renewable resources. Currently, the main resources for extraction of bio-based minerals are animal parts, such as bone and shell, and plant parts, such as rice husk and sugarcane bagasse. These resources contain high amounts of CaCO3 and silica. This chapter highlights the resources for bio-based mineral production and presents the comparison between the bio-based minerals with commercial mineral fillers. Chemical treatments and production process control adapted in the fabrication of bio-based minerals are discussed in detail. Its applications to produce valuable polymer composites as a single filler system or hybrid filler system are also reported.
