Disclosed are compositions of short fiber reinforced phenolic foams, methods of making and using the same. The disclosed fiber-reinforced phenolic foams have a seven-fold increase in peel resistance over the unreinforced counterpart foam. The phenolic foam has enhanced fracture toughness without sacrificing the critical fire retardant properties.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
The present application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. .sctn.119 to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/365,754, filed Mar. 18, 2002, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention provides materials suitable for use as secondary coatings of optical fibers or the re-coating of spliced optical fiber junctions. With regard to the latter use, the coating materials a preferably characterized by a Young's modulus that is at least about 1200 MPa, and an interfacial strength as measured by the rod and tube method of greater than 25 MPa.
