Effects of hollow Zn2SiO4 particles addition on dielectric properties of isotactic polypropylene-HW composites

Hollow willemite (Zn2SiO4) filler particles (HW) were synthesized via a spray pyrolysis method and used to make composites with isotactic polypropylene (iPP). The dielectric constant (epsilon(r)) of iPP/HW composites exhibited slight variations with the addition of the filler having the high crystallinity, while the dielectric loss (tan 8) value decreased significantly, from 20.1 x 10(-4) to 1.78 x 10(-4). As the weight fraction of the HW filler was increased, though the tan delta values of the composites slightly increased but these values maintained on the order of 10(-4) because of the highly crystalline filler. The measured epsilon(r) values of the composites were lower than those predicted by the Bruggeman model when using epsilon(f) = 6.6 (Zn2SiO4) and epsilon(m) = 2.4 (iPP). However, the data could be made to fit the Bruggeman model when epsilon(f) was assumed to be 4.8, suggesting that the air included in the HW filler suppressed the epsilon(r) of the composite. It was also established that the coefficients of thermal expansion and temperature coefficients of dielectric constant of the iPP/HW composites were significantly improved with increasing HW filler concentrations. (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier B.V.