ABSTRACTIn pursuit of our goal of forming organic-inorganic hybrid frictional
materials, we produced two types of composites, i.e., conventional and
hybrid. We formed conventional composites by dispersing fly ash,
montmorillonite clay, or pre-formed nano-sized silica particles in phenolic
matrix. Hybrid composites were fabricated from sol-gel technique using
tetramethylor-thosilicate-phenolic mixtures. We subjected our samples to
X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), differential
scanning calorimetry (DSC), in-situ transmission-Fourier transform infrared
(ISTA-FTIR), and dynamic mechanical analyzer (DMA) measurements at 40°C <
T < 310°C. Our results suggested that the curing behavior of the phenolic
polymer was affected by the concentration of the silica and hybrid
composites manifested mechanical properties, which were substantially
different from that of conventional composites.