Formation of porous fumed silica coating on the surface of glass fibers by a dry mechanical processing technique

The morphology control of fibrous fumed silica board plays an important role in the improvement of their thermal insulation performance. In this paper, the formation of porous fumed silica coatings on the surfaces of glass fibers by dry mechanical processing was investigated. As a result, a strategy to make superior glass fiber composites was proposed. It included two steps. The first step is to loosely adhere fumed silica onto the surfaces of glass fibers and the second step is to compact the loose-porous fumed silica layers on the surfaces of glass fibers. The fiber reinforced fumed silica board made of the porous fiber composites showed low thermal conductivity with better mechanical strength. (C) Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden and Society of Powder Technology, Japan, 2008.