Preferential orientation of muscovite in ceramifiable silicone composites

Silicones are well known for their thermal stability but are reduced to a powdery ceramic residue with little inherent strength when exposed to elevated temperatures. This limits applications where residue strength may be of importance. Muscovite has been shown to improve the thermal stability of silicone polymer and the strength of the resultant ceramic residue upon pyrolysis in air up to 1100 °C. XRD and SEM studies confirm the influence of particle-size and orientation dependencies of muscovite fillers within the polymer matrix on the resulting eutectic reaction and solidification process, which lead to an improvement in the ultimate strength of the ceramic residue.