Structural, Thermal, and Thermomechanical Behaviors of Phenolic-Inorganic Hybrid Composites

In pursuit of our goal of forming organic-inorganic hybrid frictional materials, we produced two types of composites, i.e., conventional and hybrid. We formed conventional composites by dispersing fly ash, montmorillonite clay, or pre-formed nano-sized silica particles in phenolic matrix. Hybrid composites were fabricated from sol-gel technique using tetramethylor-thosilicate-phenolic mixtures. We subjected our samples to X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), in-situ transmission-Fourier transform infrared (ISTA-FTIR), and dynamic mechanical analyzer (DMA) measurements at 40°C < T < 310°C. Our results suggested that the curing behavior of the phenolic polymer was affected by the concentration of the silica and hybrid composites manifested mechanical properties, which were substantially different from that of conventional composites.