Transparent Silica Micro-powder for Silicone Rubber Mixing

Transparent Silica Micro-powder for Silicone Rubber Mixing

This product is a white powder inorganic mineral raw material, produced by mixing and refining natural high-quality transparent glass-like quartz ore through special processes including high-temperature calcination, crushing, acid washing, grinding, drying, and grading. It features high whiteness, excellent transparency, good dispersibility and leveling properties, low oil absorption rate, uniform particle size, as well as resistance to compression, tensile, impact, wear, and corrosion, along with chemical and physical stability.

2. Eurolite New Materials' Particle Size Correspondence Table for Transparent Silicon Micro-Powder Products:

III. Main Characteristics of Transparent Silicon Micropowder:

◆ High Transparency: Transparent silica micro-powder is produced through a specialized composite process using premium-grade refined quartz. The filler's refractive index closely matches that of most synthetic resins, ensuring the final product's transparency remains unaffected by filler content. The resulting silicone products exhibit exceptional clarity, enabling partial substitution of silica and other powders while significantly reducing production costs.

◆Easy dispersion: Exhibits excellent wettability and adsorption properties for various resins, ensuring smooth dispersion.

◆High stability: This neutral inorganic filler exhibits excellent chemical and physical stability, with outstanding weather resistance and corrosion resistance.

◆High hardness: Enhances surface smoothness and abrasion/scratching resistance of the product;

◆Low oil absorption: helps reduce manufacturing costs;

◆Enhanced mechanical strength: The improved powder morphology increases specific surface area, thereby expanding the contact surface with the adhesive.

◆Increase the filling rate: Reduce the linear expansion coefficient of the cured material and the shrinkage rate during curing, thereby extending the construction time

◆Enhanced wear resistance: Increased density of the cured material improves hardness, compressive strength, tensile strength, and impact resistance;

◆Reduced production costs: Increased filling volume lowers production costs for silicone, silicone rubber, compound rubber, adhesives, mica adhesive, stone adhesive, and epoxy AB dry-hanging adhesive.

IV. Conventional Physical Properties of Quartz Powder for Transparent Type:

Transparent silicon micropowder can be classified by the following characteristics and customized according to customer requirements:

5、Analysis of the main application of transparent silicon powder in rubber and plastic industry

1. Wear-resistant rubber products, including rubber sheets, tubes, belts, and rollers, require the compound to exhibit excellent permeability and strong adhesion. Test results demonstrate that the compound filled with silicon micro-powder fully demonstrates unique properties such as low consistency, good permeability, excellent dispersion, and strong adhesion. These properties facilitate the application of the compound onto canvas and enhance the adhesion strength between the film and the canvas. The mechanical properties of the products, such as tensile strength and permanent deformation, are significantly improved, particularly in enhancing the wear resistance of the rubber products.

2. It can be used in epoxy resin insulation encapsulation materials, which can greatly increase the filling amount, reduce the viscosity of the mixed material system, improve the processing performance, increase the permeability of the mixture, reduce the expansion coefficient of the cured material and the shrinkage rate of the curing process, and reduce the thermal expansion difference.

3. Silica micro-powder, with silicon dioxide as its main component, is used as a plastic filler in materials such as polyethylene (PE), polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), epoxy resin (EP), and silicone rubber. It enhances the heat and moisture resistance of products while reducing stress cracking.

4. Silicon micropowder with a moisture content of less than 0.1% can enhance the bonding strength, yield value, and shear dilution index of the colloid in sealants. It exhibits thickening, reinforcing, tear resistance, and anti-aging properties.

VI. The Role of Silicon Micropowder in Rubber and Plastic Materials

1. Enhance product transparency, reduce the usage of high-value white carbon black powder, and lower costs

2. Modulate the rheological properties of the product, such as thickening and anti-settling;

3. Improve the mechanical strength of the product, such as enhancing wear resistance and crack resistance;

4. Adjust the optical properties of silicone to modify the product's appearance, such as achieving matte finish;

5. Serves as a framework and filler in silicone/rubber, increasing thickness to enhance product fullness and solidity while reducing costs;

6、It plays an auxiliary role in the chemical properties of the product, such as improving rust-proof, moisture-proof, flame-retardant, etc.

7. Fully integrates with the film-forming material to create a unified structure, effectively blocking light penetration while enhancing water resistance and weather resistance, thereby prolonging the product's service life.

7. Silicon micropowder, when incorporated into advanced rubber materials like silicone rubber, delivers exceptional dispersion and leveling properties while providing tear resistance, tensile strength, aging resistance, and reinforcement. Compared to mid-to-low-end precipitated silica on the market, quartz powder outperforms in key technical parameters including SiO2 content (over 99.6%), moisture content (below 0.1%), particle size distribution, and oil absorption capacity.

(1)Silicon powder can improve the strength and product quality of silicone rubber (filling amount 30-70%), and is an indispensable excellent filler for anti-UV radiation, infrared reflection and high dielectric insulation.

(2) Silica micro-powder is incorporated into the tread compound of large-duty truck tires and high-speed radial tires for passenger vehicles at a content exceeding 20% ultra-fine silica, endowing the tires with superior anti-skid, heat dissipation, and wear resistance properties. The addition of ultra-fine silica to the tire tread significantly reduces rolling resistance, enhances tear resistance, cut resistance, and structural strength, while maintaining ice and slip resistance. This innovative technology has earned the tires the designation of "green tires".

(3) The elastic, toughness, wear-resistance and strength of the tire and rubber products are obviously superior to those of the tire and rubber products with the conventional silica as filler when the ultrafine silica powder is added to the tire and rubber products.

(4) Ultrafine quartz powder, when incorporated into rubber compounds such as natural rubber, polybutadiene rubber, and nitrile rubber, exhibits excellent dispersibility, superior mixing processability, and outstanding calendering and extrusion properties. It accelerates vulcanization rates, enhances rubber viscosity, and can replace 50% silica as filler in compounds. Notably, it shows no significant impact on mechanical properties (including tensile strength, set strength, elongation at break, permanent elongation at break, tear strength, and product hardness) of the final products. However, it substantially reduces production costs, making it particularly suitable for rubber products such as rollers, hoses, wires, cables, and their protective sheaths.

8. Analysis of Performance Requirements for Silicon Micropowder Fillers in the Rubber & Plastic Industry:

(1) Fineness: Generally speaking, the finer the reinforcing filler particles are, the larger their specific surface area becomes, and the greater the contact area with rubber, resulting in better reinforcement effects. For non-reinforcing fillers, finer particles lead to improved mixing performance when added to rubber. However, uniform dispersion is essential; even with fine particles, poor mixing results will occur if they are not evenly dispersed.

(2) Particle Shape and Crystal Form: Spherical filler particles are preferable. Flaky or needle-shaped fillers tend to align directionally during vulcanized rubber stretching, leading to increased permanent deformation and reduced tear resistance. In reinforcing fillers, carbon black and silica are amorphous, while other fillers may exhibit crystalline forms. For instance, although both silicon micropowder and silica share the chemical composition of silicon dioxide, the former is crystalline while the latter is amorphous. Crystalline fillers are further classified into two types: isotropic crystalline and anisotropic crystalline. Isotropic crystalline fillers exhibit similar X, Y, and Z axes with isotropic properties. Anisotropic crystalline fillers show distinct differences in their X, Y, and Z axes, demonstrating anisotropy. Among common non-metallic mineral fillers, clay, graphite, and diatomaceous earth belong to the anisotropic crystalline system, while calcium carbonate belongs to the isotropic crystalline system. Rubber products requiring excellent wear resistance and tear resistance should avoid using anisotropic crystalline fillers as reinforcing materials.

(3) Surface Properties: When powder fillers are blended with rubber, their particles become enveloped by rubber molecules. The surface wetting degree of these particles significantly impacts reinforcement efficacy. Particles with poor wetting properties tend to disperse poorly in rubber and readily agglomerate, thereby reducing reinforcement effectiveness. This issue can be mitigated by incorporating substances that enhance surface wetting. For instance, calcium carbonate, which exhibits minimal reinforcement efficacy, demonstrates improved performance when fatty acids are added. The fatty acids reduce surface tension, increase wetting, and consequently enhance reinforcement effects.