Reinforcement from In-situ Precipitated Silica in Polysiloxane Elastomers underVarious Types of Deformation

摘要

Elastomeric networks prepared by tetrafunctionally end linking hydroxyl-terminated poly(dimethylsiloxane) chains (PDMS) were filled by the in-situ precipitation of silica. The resulting networks were investigated under uniaxial elongation, biaxial extension, shear, and torsion in order to characterize the resulting changes in mechanical properties. Compared with the unfilled networks, the silica-filled materials showed large reinforcing effects. Specifically, their values of the modulus, ultimate strength, and rupture energy increased significantly. The results thus indicate that the PDMS networks filled by the in-situ precipitation of silica have very good mechanical properties in several, rather different deformations. Examples of other deformations of interest are equilibrium swelling, and dynamic cycling for characterization of compression set.