Fiber produced from natural quartz crystals of high purity (99.95% SiO2). Quartz melts at 1610°C and is immune to thermal shock. Quartz- and silica-fiber reinforced composites are used in jet aircraft, rocket nozzles, and reentry nose cones. Quartz whiskers are also in use where their high cost is justified. They are among the strongest and stiffest of all fibers, comparable with graphite whiskers, with strength of 21 GPa and modulus of 700 GPa. Density is 2.65 g/cm3. (Callister WD, Materials Science and Engineering, John Wiley and Sons, New York, 2002; McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Geology and Mineralogy, McGraw-Hill, New York, 2002)
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Gooch, J.W. (2011). Quartz Fiber. In: Gooch, J.W. (eds) Encyclopedic Dictionary of Polymers. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-6247-8_9687
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