Polydimethylsiloxane/Nanodiamond Composite Sponge for Enhanced Mechanical or Wettability Performance

Abstract

Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is widely utilized in material science, chemical engineering, and environmental science due to its excellent properties. By utilizing fillers, so-called composite materials can be obtained with enhanced mechanical, wettability, or thermal conductivity performance. Here, we present a simple, cost-effective approach to vary either the mechanical properties (Young’s modulus) or surface wettability of bulk PDMS and PDMS sponges simply by adding nanodiamond filler with different surface terminations, either oxidized (oND) or hydrogenated (reduced, rND) nanodiamond. Minuscule amounts of oxidized nanodiamond particles as filler showed to benefit the compressive Young’s modulus of composite sponges with up to a 52% increase in its value, while the wettability of composite sponges was unaffected. In contrast, adding reduced nanodiamond particles to PDMS yielded inclined water contact angles on the PDMS/nanodiamond composite sponges. Finally, we show that the PDMS/rND composites are readily utilized as an absorbent for oil/water separation problems. This signifies that the surface termination of the ND particle has a crucial effect on the performance of the composite.

Tuning Thermal and Mechanical Properties of Polydimethylsiloxane with Carbon Fibers

“…In order to overcome the mechanical and thermal shortcomings of PDMS, extensive research has focused on improving the material properties using different fillers. Carbon nanofibers and nanotubes [ 18 , 19 , 20 ], graphite [ 21 ], graphene [ 22 ], nanodiamond [ 23 ], carbon black [ 18 ], silica [ 24 ], nanoclay [ 25 ], and other fillers have all been used to improve the properties of PDMS and other polymer materials. Specifically, carbon fibers have several qualities that make them an appropriate filler for polymer materials.…”

PDMS-ZnO Piezoelectric Nanocomposites for Pressure Sensors

“…At this concentration, the formation of agglomerations is low and the mechanical properties are not significantly affected while for concentrations from 2% up to 5%, E was found to decrease regardless of the type of filler. The observed decrease can be explained by the fact that nanofillers can restrict the formation of the 3D networks within the polymer, a weak filler–matrix interaction and an increase in the interacting interphase region [ 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 ]. The introduction of ZnO nanofillers in the PDMS matrix inhibits the curing process, thus resulting in a decrease in crosslinking density leading to a final nanocomposite with a lower E [ 42 , 43 ].…”

In-Situ Studies of Stress Environment in Amorphous Solids Using Negatively Charged Nitrogen Vacancy Centers in Nanodiamond

“…It has been reported that the surface termination of the NDs may influence the colloidal stability, distribution, and reactivity with the polymers. [30][31][32] However, we designed our experimental protocol in a way that such undesired changes brought by the NDs to the system could be avoided. First, in each of our experiments, the density and total number of NDs were negligible as compared to the volume of the polymeric sample.…”