Thermal stability and mechanical properties of silicone rubber composites filled with wollastonite/mineral fiber hybrid fire-proof fillers

In this study, silicone rubber composites filled with hybrid inorganic fire-proof fillers were analyzed for mechanical properties and thermal stability. A mineral fiber composite was found to be superior to a wollastonite composite through gas torch flame tests and hybrid composites have improved fire resistance than the mineral fiber composite. Wollastonite was found to be well dispersed in silicone rubber composites observed by SEM and could compensate for the low dispersibility of mineral fibers. The thermal stability of the composites was confirmed by TGA analysis and the ceramization tendency of the hybrid composites was analyzed by XRD analysis. The mechanical strength of wollastonite composite was measured by UTM. It was found that the addition of wollastonite was able to slightly compensate the low mechanical strength of mineral fiber filled composites by improving the dispersibility of fillers.