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Three methods for determining the swelling of silicone rubber
Author(s) -
Seeley Robert D.
Publication year - 1965
Publication title -
journal of applied polymer science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.575
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-4628
pISSN - 0021-8995
DOI - 10.1002/app.1965.070091008
Subject(s) - swelling , silicone rubber , solvent , natural rubber , materials science , composite material , volume (thermodynamics) , polymer , polymer chemistry , thermodynamics , chemistry , organic chemistry , physics
A solvent swelling method is often a convenient means of characterizing the structure of a polymeric network, if the appropriate solvent‐polymer interaction parameters are known. Three such methods for measuring the solvent dilative action on silica‐filled, silicone rubber networks have been investigated. First, the quantity by weight of solvent sorbed by the rubber was determined by measuring the weight gain of a rubber specimen at equilibrium swelling. Second, the increase in volume of the rubber specimen was determined by optical and electronic instruments. Third, the volume of solvent taken up by the rubber specimen was measured directly by a simple apparatus which was designed by the author. The effective crosslink densities were calculated by using appropriate interaction parameters. These density values were then compared for the three techniques.