Study on Mechanical, Thermal and Electrical Characterizations of Nano-SiC/Epoxy Composites

This report covers the results of a study on evaluating the effect of nano-SiC particles on mechanical, thermal and electrical properties of epoxy by lap shear, TGA, DSC and electrical tests. Epoxy composites filled with micro-SiC particles were also studied for comparison. The mechanisms of performance improvement were discussed in detail. The results showed that with identical loading, silane treated nano-SiC filled nanocomposites have the best properties. The volume resistivity decrease, dielectric constant e increase and loss tangent tan(δ) increase by addition of silane treated nano-SiC particles are smaller than those by the other fillers. Silane treatment of nanoparticles improves each performance, including increases shear strength, thermal stability, volume resistivity and decreases e and (δ). The addition of nano-SiC particles remarkably improves shear strength, e and tan(δ), while slightly enhances thermal stability of epoxy. 8 vol. % silane treated nano-SiC/epoxy composite has the highest shear strength 10.6 MPa with the maximum enhancement, 80%, over the neat resin. It also has good temperature independence of dielectric properties and enough volume resistivity, which meet the demand of some microelectronics materials.