Abstract Endowing polymers with improved mechanical properties by functional fillers is a continuously pursued topic. Although composites with different filler‐improved properties have been reported, the inevitably raised costs often restrict the practical uses of these products. Herein, we report the utilization of the waste asphaltene sands (AS) produced from the coal‐oil co‐processing process as a functional filler to toughen the thermoplastic elastomers represented by SEBS. The FT‐IR, XRD and elemental analysis showed that AS is a mixture consisting of organic compounds and inorganic minerals from the coal. After filling AS into SEBS, the inorganic minerals act as hard cores to strengthen the matrix while the surrounding aromatic and alkane compounds ensure a good compatibility of AS with SEBS. Composites with altered contents and sizes of AS particles were prepared by solvent processing and subsequent hot pressing. The optical microscopy images show a good dispersion of the AS particles in the SEBS substrate. As a result, the tensile strength of the composites are notably enhanced from 6.88 to 17.23 MPa after loading 20 wt AS. Thus, the AS waste is very promising as the new and successful filler in developing polymers with improved mechanical properties and simultaneously reduced production cost.
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