Review on Utilization of Fly Ash for Improvement of Mechanical and Thermal Properties of Polymer Composites

Recently, as environmental problems of fly ash emerge, the need for the useful utilization of fly ash continues to increase. Among various applications, fly ash is being studied as a filler for the improvement of mechanical and thermal properties of polymers due to its low cost as well as stable physical and chemical properties. However, due to the poor wettability with polymer matrices, the use of fly ash as a filler has been considerably limited. In this review, properties of fly ash are introduced and various surface modification methods of fly ash to improve the interaction with polymers are summarized. Finally, the mechanical and thermal properties of raw and modified fly ash-containing polymer composites are reviewed.