Quartz fiber is a fiber created from high-purity quartz crystals.
Manufacture
Quartz fiber is made from heating quartz rods with an oxyhydrogen flame. Then, filaments are drawn out of the quartz rod, creating quartz fibers.
For optical fibers,
germanium and
phosphorus can be added to increase the
refractive index.
Properties
A single quartz fiber can have a
tensile strength of . Quartz fibers are chemically stable as they are not affected by
(for the most part). Quartz fibers also have a higher thermal resistance than
S-glass or
E-glass.
Applications
Since quartz fiber is expensive, it has limited applications.
It is used mainly for producing composite materials (due to having higher stability compared to
glass fiber) and in electrical applications where thermal resistance and
dielectric properties are important.
It can be used in filtration applications where alternatives such as glass fiber filters cannot be used.
Quartz fiber can also be used for physical devices (such as in quartz fiber dosimeters and quartz fiber electrometers).
Quartz fibers can be used in fiber optics. This is due to a quartz fiber having the ability to transport data at a speed of 1 terabit per second,
Similar to how fiberglass can be made, quartz fiber can be used to make composite materials by combining with a resin. The fiber can be weaved into a cloth ("quartz cloth", "silica cloth"), or chopped to a uniform length.
See also
