Mechanical and thermal properties of SiO₂/cyanate ester nano-composites

SiO₂/cyanate ester (CE) nano-composites were prepared by a high-speed homogeneous shearing method; the quasi-static and dynamic mechanical properties and the thermal stability of the composites were investigated. The results show that the impact and flexural strengths of the composites obviously increase at the low content of SiO₂. The impact strength reaches a maximum at 0.30 wt% SiO₂, which is 88.9% higher than that of the pure CE. And the flexural strength reaches a maximum at 0.15 wt% SiO₂, which is 20% higher than that of the pure CE. The storage modulus and high temperature loss modulus of the composites obviously increase compared with those of the pure CE, and the glass transition temperature is 31.2°C higher than that of the pure CE. It is also found that the decomposition temperature of the composites reaches a maximum at 0.30 wt% SiO₂; when the mass loss of composites is 10%, the degradation temperature increased by 25.7°C compared with that of the pure CE.