Research status and development trend of ceramifiable silicone rubber composites: a brief review

Abstract Ceramifiable silicone rubber composites (CSR) are one of the most important industrially produced elastic technical materials. At present, there is a strong demand for CSR in the high-tech fields of high-speed rail, nuclear power, rocket and aerospace, which are still to be met. Many scholars have committed to the research work of improving the thermal stability, flame retardant, mechanical properties by changing the silicone rubber (SR) matrixes and filler, tremendous advances in CSR have been made for over the last decades where CSR intended for the high technology fields has evolved through different generations. In summary, the first-generation research is based on matrix reaction, the second-generation research is on reaction products, and the third-generation research is on fillers effects. In this review, the evolution of CSR and the synthesis routes, reaction mechanism, and degradation mechanism are introduced and analyzed; fillers, various types of CSR based composites as well as the flame retardancy and mechanical properties are reviewed. Finally, the problems of developing high-performance CSRs are proposed and discussed. This review provides a theoretical basis and supporting data for the application of high-performance CSR, as well as provides details on the fire prevention mechanism of CSR.