An Evaluation of the Damping Characteristics of Some Silicon Rubber/Ferric Oxide Composites

Generally, polymeric materials with superior damping characteristics are in great demand for many advanced functional applications, such as in building, aerospace, electronics, and transport sectors. However, it still remains a challenge to improve the damping characteristics of such materials owing to the lack of adequate practical knowledge in this area. Here, we report on the successful fabrication of silicon rubber (SR)/ferric oxide (Fe 3 O 4 ) composites with excellent damping characteristics. The results obtained from the study showed that the damping characteristics of the specimens increased with the loading of Fe 3 O 4 within a range of −105°C to 200°C. Specifically, the damping factor (tan δ ) is 0.45 at room temperature, and the effective working temperature, the temperatures that correspond to the tan δ > 0.3, ranged from −105°C to 165°C for the loading of Fe 3 O 4 at 60 phr. The scanning electron microscopy results showed that the excellent damping characteristics of composites can be attributed to the good dispersion of Fe 3 O 4 in the SR matrix. This work, therefore, opens up a pathway toward a relatively easy and up-scalable means for fabricating polymer composites that have superior damping characteristics and ones with a wider applicability.