The importance and methods of dispersing fillers into epoxy resin

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Description/Abstract

There has been much interest in creating composite dielectrics over recent years, many involving a polymer matrix with a filler or additive present to increase one or more specific properties of the overall material. By dispersing such fillers into a host material, such as a polymer, it has been seen that properties such as electrical breakdown strength, thermal crystallisation kinetics, fire retardancy and more can be altered to create superior materials for chosen purposes. When creating a polymer composite many issues must be addressed, such as; the compatibility of the filler with the polymer, the size of the filler particulates, the agglomeration of the filler, the filler loading and the general dispersion of the filler. It is commonly known that a poor dispersion of filler will result in a material with non-uniform properties, thus resulting in the general aim of having a filler as well dispersed as possible. There are many methods available to achieve a good dispersion of fillers, however it is important to ensure that these methods do not alter the polymer matrix resulting in misleading results. This investigation looks at several methods of dispersing three chosen fillers within a polymer matrix and the resulting electrical properties with regard to the dispersion state of the fillers. Also, the same processes will be performed on unfilled materials to investigate any effects they may have on the host material. For this investigation an epoxy system (EP) was chosen as the host polymer with aluminium pillared montmorillonite (MMT), micro spheres of silicon dioxide (SD) and nano spheres of silicon dioxide (NSD) as fillers. The dispersion of the fillers was quantified by use of SEM and inferred by use of electrical breakdown tests, which also revealed any effect on the electrical breakdown characteristics of the final materials.