Effect of nano/micro silica on electrical property of unsaturated polyester resin composites

Abstract

The addition of nano/micro silica into unsaturated polyester resin (UPR) results in the improvement of the electrical properties of Silica-UPR composites. The surface, volume resistivity, dielectric strength, dissipation factor and dry arc resistivity of nano silica-UPR composites were found to improve significantly. The effects of the nano and micro fillers in UPR have been evaluated. They are presented in this paper. To evaluate the electrical properties of the nano & micro composites, all the measurements were done as per the prescribed methods in ASTM. It was observed that the addition of nano silica improves the electrical properties as compared to micro silica. The better dispersion of silica particles in unsaturated polyester resin enhances the electrical properties of silica-UPR composites. © 2012 KIEEME. All rights reserved.