The rheological behavior of the room temperature vulcanized polydimethylsiloxane (precursor) with tetraethylorthosilicate (crosslinker) was studied. Data collected from a constant stress rheometer showed that, during the vulcanization, the phase angle increased until reaching the gel point where the elasticity predominated over the viscosity causing a drastic decrease. At a higher ratio of crosslinker to precursor, the vulcanization accelerated and the gel point was reached sooner, thus resulting in a shorter gel time. However, data collected from our extraction experiments indicated that the degree of completion for vulcanization was actually lowered because of an increased amount of sol species, thus necessitating a longer cycle time for a complete cure. The validity of this observation was corroborated by comparing the data collected from the extraction method against those collected from two independent thermal analytical methods, namely the heat capacity method and the cold crystallization method. The degree of completion for vulcanization at each reaction instant determined using these three methods were in excellent agreement with each other. In addition, the presence of residue sol species in the vulcanized products caused a slight decrease in the thermal stability.
Посилання на статтю:
Rheological, extractive and thermal studies of the room temperature vulcanized polydimethylsiloxane / Y. Tang, R. Tsiang // Polymer. – 1999. – N 40. – P. 6135–6146.
