Organic acid containing filled and plasticized thermoplastic compositions based on ethylene interpolymers

A thermoplastic composition consisting essentially of

• (a) from 0 to about 50% by weight of at least one copolymer of ethylene with at least one comonomer selected from the group consisting of vinyl esters of saturated carboxylic acids wherein the acid moiety has up to 4 carbon atoms, unsaturated mono- and dicarboxylic acids of 3 to 5 carbon atoms, salts of said unsaturated acids, and esters of said unsaturated acids wherein the alcohol moiety has 1 to 8 carbon atoms, the ethylene content of said copolymer being from about 40 to 95% by weight, the comonomer content of said copolymer being from about 5 to about 60% by weight, and the melt index of said copolymer being from 0.1 to about 400, provided that when said copolymer of ethylene is an ethylene/vinyl ester or ethylene/unsaturated mono- or dicarboxylic acid ester copolymer said copolymer can contain up to about 15 percent by weight of carbon monoxide or sulfur dioxide;
• provided, that when the olefin polymer of paragraph (e) is absent, the amount of ethylene copolymer is at least about 5% by weight;
• (b) from 0 to 20 percent by weight of at least one plasticizer selected from the group consisting of processing oils, epoxidized oils, polyesters, polyethers, and polyether esters;
• (c) from about 40 to about 90% by weight of filler;
• (d) from about 0.05 to about 5% by weight of at least one organic acid or acid derivative selected from the group consisting of saturated mono- and polycarboxylic acids having from 6 to 54 carbon atoms, unsaturated mono- and dicarboxylic acids having from 12 to 20 carbon atoms, alicyclic and aromatic carboxylic acids and mono-, di- and trivalent metal salts, esters and amides of said organic acids, provided that the amount of acid is at least equal to the amount at which concentration a step-wise increase occurs on a plot of tensile elongation at break expressed as a function of acid concentration;
• (e) from 0 to about 55% by weight of olefin polymer selected from the group consisting of low density branched polyethylene, high density linear polyethylene, linear copolymers of ethylene and another olefin comonomer, polypropylene and copolymers of propylene and ethylene where the ethylene content is up to 20% by weight provided, that when the ethylene copolymer of paragraph (a) is absent the amount of olefin polymer is at least about 5% by weight;
• and
• (f) from 0 to about 30% by weight of tackifier.