Accelerated thermal ageing studies of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) rubber

Abstract

Thermal ageing studies over relative high temperature range (from 250°C to 85°C) have been conducted on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) rubber with the aim of investigating ageing behavior. Tensile elongation, compression set and creep measurements are introduced to monitor the ageing process. Time temperature superposition is performed and the linear trends are found in the Arrhenius plots for all the approaches, revealing an identical process dominates the degradation process. Activation energies are found to be depended on the methods used, which are 88.5 kJ/mol for tensile tests, 67.7 kJ/mol for compression set measurements and 75.3 kJ/mol for creep measurements. The phenomenon that activation energy obtained from tensile elongation is always higher than other approaches is rationalized by the sensitive modification of thermal degradation on the rubbery network. Moreover, correlations between the results from different approaches have been examined. The linear relationships have been found between tensile elongation and creep or compression set measurements for the three methods are all influenced by the network structure.

Structured elastomeric submillimeter films displaying magneto and piezo resistivity

“…The loss at 400 °C, under instrumental conditions similar to the present, has been assigned to degradation of SBR . The thermal degradation of SBR is a complex process, in which the most likely pathways have been previously described …”

Tunable Flexible Pressure Sensors using Microstructured Elastomer Geometries for Intuitive Electronics

“…[ 23 ] The dimensions and positions of the pits were determined by lithographically patterning a silicon dioxide that serves as an etch mask because it has a relatively slow etch rate in KOH. [ 24 ] From Figure 4 , we see the resultant different spatial arrangement of the PDMS microstructures. In order to obtain a template that has the same features as the silicon molds, we repeated the PDMS mold making process twice using the fi rst replicated mold as template for the fi nal mold.…”

Graphene as a prominent antioxidant for diolefin elastomers

“…Thermal oxidation usually generates various oxygenated species in diolen elastomers, such as carbonyls, anhydrides, lactones, peracids and ketones. 41 The formation of these carbonyl species is reected by the peak centered at 1726 cm À1 in the FTIR spectra (Fig. S5 in the ESI †).…”

“…S6 in the ESI †). Since the benzene rings in SBR are highly stable even when subjected to accelerated thermal ageing, 41 we take the characteristic peak of benzene rings at 1493 cm À1 as the reference to obtain the relative peak intensity at 1726 cm À1 , I R1726 ¼ I 1726 /I 1493 . We nd that the I R1726 of SBR/ GE-7 shows a much weaker increase than that of the unlled SBR during the ageing process, as displayed in Fig.…”