Specific gravity and dielectric permittivity characteristics of mesoporous-silica/epoxy composites

Mesoporous-silica/epoxy composites consist of epoxy resin and the mesoporous-silica particles which have the micrometric particle-diameter and the nanometric pore-size. Mesoporous-silica/epoxy composite material can actualize nanoporous composite insulator. This paper presents the measurement results of specific gravity and dielectric permittivity for the mesoporous-silica/epoxy composites (MPC). The specific gravity of MPC was found to be lower than that of nonporous-silica/epoxy composites (NPC). The capacitance measurements revealed that the relative permittivity of MPC was lower than that of NPC and unfilled epoxy. Furthermore, we compared the experimental values of the relative permittivity with the calculated value based on the random arranged model. The lower permittivity of MPC could be quantitatively explained by its particle porosity.