Abstract: In this paper, a composite consisting of chopped carbon fiber, hollow glass microsphere and epoxy resin was prepared by molding process .The section morphology, density, compression strength, water absorption rate of the composite were studied. The results show that the density of the composite has little change, but its compression strength increased with the increase of carbon fiber percentage. When the carbon fiber content was 4%, the maximum compression strength of the composite with 50 wt%, 55 wt%, 60 wt% glass microsphere were 68.9 MPa, 65.1 MPa, 57.2 MPa, respectively. The saturated water absorption rate decreased as the increase of carbon fiber percentage. When the carbon fiber content was 4%, the composite with 55 wt% and 60 wt% glass microsphere show the minimum saturated water absorption rate of 0.81% and 1.15%, respectively.

Key words: epoxy resin, hollow glass microsphere, carbon fiber, compression strength