Electric heating property from butyl rubber-loaded boron carbide composites

We researched the electric heating property from butyl rubber-loaded boron carbide composite. The effects of boron carbide content on bulk resistivity, voltage-current characteristic, thermal conductivity and thermal stability of boron carbide / butyl rubber (IIR) polymer composite were introduced. The analysis results indicated that the bulk resistivity decreased greatly with increasing boron carbide content, and when boron carbide content reached to 60%, the bulk resistivity achieved the minimum. Accordingly, electric heating behavior of the composite is strongly dependent on boron carbide content as well as applied voltage. The content of boron carbide was found to be effective in achieving high thermal conductivity in composite systems. The thermal conductivity of the composite material with added boron carbide was improved nearly 20 times than that of the pure IIR. The thermal stability test showed that, compared with pure IIR, the thermal stable time of composites was markedly extended, which indicated that the boron carbide can significantly improve the thermal stability of boron carbide / IIR composite.