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NH 3 ‐modified swelling of silica‐filled silicone rubber
Author(s) -
Vondráček Petr,
Schätz Miroslav
Publication year - 1979
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.1979.070230913
Subject(s) - swelling , materials science , silanol , natural rubber , silicone rubber , composite material , polymer , filler (materials) , elastomer , silica fume , chemistry , organic chemistry , catalysis , compressive strength
The NH 3 ‐modified swelling method was used for fume silica‐filled silicone rubber compounds and vulcanizates. The method provides an estimation of the polymer–filler interaction in the system. Bound rubber reduction due to the modified swelling is shown to be dependent on the silica surface silanol content in the compound. The swelling behavior of silica‐filled vulcanizates was also studied in an NH 3 atmosphere. The fraction of polymer–filler attachments in the vulcanizates was found not to depend on the particle size of silica and its surface modification, depending only on the total polymer–filler contact area in the system. No relation was found between bound rubber content in a compound and swelling of a filled vulcanizate of the same composition. The strong rubber‐to‐filler adherence found in toluene changed to nonadherence under NH 3 ‐modified swelling conditions. The NH 3 ‐induced cleavage of silica–silicone rubber attachments was found to be nearly completely reversible. In the silica‐filled silicone rubber vulcanizates, the fraction of polymer–filler attachments due to polymer–filler interaction represents a substantial contribution to the total number of network chains.