Effect of particle shape of silica mineral on the properties of epoxy composites

This study was carried out to evaluate the performance of silica mineral composites in comparison with conventional fused silica composites, which is commonly used as underfill material. The silica mineral was produced by fine grinding technique. Three different particle shape type, namely angular, cubical and elongated shapes were obtained by varying the classifier speed of the grinder. In this study, the effects of different percentage of filler loading and shapes of silica mineral particles on the mechanical and thermal properties of composite systems were investigated. In general, it was found that the addition of particulate filler loading increased the tensile strength and modulus, flexural strength and modulus, thermal stability and Tg. As expected, the addition of filler in epoxy reduced the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of the system. The study showed that elongated silica mineral particles exhibited higher flexural and tensile properties and comparable CTE in comparison with fused silica filler composites.