Curing Kinetics and the Properties of KH560-SiO2/Polyethersulfone/Bismaleimide-Phenolic Epoxy Resin Composite

KH560-SiO2/polyethersulfone/bismaleimide-phenolic epoxy resin (KH560-SiO2/PES/BMI-EPN) composite had been prepared and studied, in which BMI-EPN resin was used as matrix, PES resin and SiO2 modified by silane coupling agent (KH560-SiO2) as toughness reinforcing agent. The curing kinetics and the apparent activation energy of the resin system were studied and calculated by the non-isothermal differential scanning calorimetry. The micro-morphology was investigated by scanning electron microscope (SEM), and the mechanical, thermal and dielectric properties of the composites was analyzed. The morphology showed that PES resin and KH560-SiO2 were evenly dispersed in the matrix and a multi-phase structure was formed. The flexural modulus, flexural and impact strength of composite were 4.2 GPa, 156.2 MPa and 20.9 kJ m−2, with an increase of 31%, 50% and 83% than those of resin matrix, respectively, when the content of PES resin was 4 wt% and KH560-SiO2 was 1.5 wt%. Furthermore, the thermal decomposition temperature (Td) of the composite was 393 °C which was 15 °C higher than that of resin matrix. The results of dielectric properties showed that the dielectric constant of the composite first decreased and then increased with the increase of KH560-SiO2 doping content, and the dielectric loss did not change significantly. The dielectric constant and dielectric loss tangent were 4.55 and 0.0029 at 10 Hz, when the content of KH560-SiO2 was 1.5 wt%. This study provided theoretical data for expanding the application range of phenolic epoxy and bismaleimide.