Effect of Ethanol as Diluent on the Properties of Mineral Silica Filled Epoxy Composites

Abstract

Epoxy composites with mineral silica containing 0—60 vol% were prepared using a mechanical stirrer. Ethanol at 10wt% was used as the diluent in the epoxy system. The mechanical properties of epoxy composites were studied through flexural and single etch notch tensile mode (SEN-T) fracture toughness tests. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to assess the flexural fracture surface morphology. The thermal properties were characterized using a dilatometer, dynamic mechanical analyzer (DMA), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). In general, it is found that the properties of epoxy composites are governed by the filler loading and the addition of ethanol as the diluent. The addition of the diluent in epoxy permits higher amount of filler content in the epoxy composites system, i.e., 60vol%, compared to that of the non-diluent system at 40vol%. In short, higher filler loading present in a diluent system results in higher stiffness and low coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) as required in the electronic packaging application.