Electrically insulating ZnOs/ZnOw/silicone rubber nanocomposites with enhanced thermal conductivity and mechanical properties

In this work, hybrids of surface modified zinc oxide spherical (ZnOs) nanoparticles and tetrapod-shaped whiskers (ZnOw) were incorporated into the silicon rubber (SR) to prepare the ZnOs/ZnOw/SR nanocomposites. The incorporation of the ZnOs/ZnOw facilitated the formation of three-dimensional thermally conducting network. It was found that the thermal conductivity of the ZnOs/ZnOw/SR reached up to 1.309 Wm(-1)K(-1) when the ZnOs/ZnOw content was 20 vol % (Vm-ZnOs:V-ZnOw=7:3), which was nearly 6.5 times that of the pristine SR. The dielectric and resistivity measurements showed that the incorporation of the ZnOs/ZnOw hybrids did not cause much change in the electrical properties. In addition, the results show that the tensile strength of ZnOs/ZnOw/SR nanocomposites is higher than that of pristine SR. (c) 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2018, 135, 46454.