Study on Thermal Stability of Nano-Silica Thermal Insulating Composites
This work investigated the thermal stability of nano-silica thermal insulating composites, which consisted of fumed silica, fibers and opacifiers. The volume shrinkage was introduced as an evaluation index to characterize thermal stability of the composites at different temperatures. The effects of serving temperature, serving time, particle size of fumed silica and mass ratio of SiC were discussed. The results indicated nano-silica thermal insulating composites have excellent thermal stability under the temperature of 800°C. The volume shrinkage was correlated positively with serving time. High specific surface area of fumed silica could bring good thermal insulating performance, but at the same time caused high volume shrinkage when applied at high temperatures. SiC as an opacifier has little influence on volume shrinkage, but too much amount may yet increase solid heat transfer and lead to the drop of thermal insulating properties.