Abstract
Availability of advanced materials has opened up opportunities in meeting several functional requirements through hybridization. Hybrids consisting of ceramics, metals and high performance polymers could benefit many aircraft and space satellite applications. They could meet requirements of low weight, high environmental stability, and high thermal or dimensional stability. In this study, hybrid materials consisting of high performance polymer, porous ceramics (glass microballoons) and other constituents such as Zircornium Tungstate (with negative coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE)) and nanoclay were studied. Specimens were successfully produced with a range of density from 0.4 to 1.1 g/cm3 depending on the degree of fill in the syntactic foams. CTE tailoring was achieved to greatly reduce the residual stress arising from processing and CTE mismatch of dissimilar materials. The evaluations of dimensional stability were examined from thermomechanical analysis. The synergistic effects of resin, ceramic constituents and pores on the hybrid properties will be presented.