Enhanced Thermal and Mechanical Properties of Epoxy Composites by Spherical Silica with Different Size

Spherical silica particles with mean diameter 350 nm, 500 nm and 1000 nm were used to modify o-cresol-novolac epoxy resin (ECN) at a ranging constant weight fraction from 0 to 20 wt%. The effects of particle size and fillers content on the impact strength, flexural modulus, dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE), dielectric properties and bulk resistivities of epoxy composites filled with spherical silica particles were investigated. The results revealed that the impact strength and flexural modulus showed significant improvements with the addition of spherical silica particles. The glass transition temperature (Tg) of composites was higher than that of pure epoxy. The maximum increment of Tg was 34 °C by the addition of 2 wt% D500. The CTE of the composites with different size silica exhibit much lower dimension changes than that of pure epoxy. The dielectric constant was decreased with the addition of spherical silica particles. However, the particle size exhibited weakly effect on the dielectric properties. The bulk resistivities of the composites have greatly improved compared to the pure epoxy and increase with decreasing the particle size.