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Fabrication of Silicone Rubber Foam with Tailored Porous Structures by Supercritical CO 2
Author(s) -
Yan Hao,
Wang Kai,
Zhao Yan
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
macromolecular materials and engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.913
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1439-2054
pISSN - 1438-7492
DOI - 10.1002/mame.201600377
Subject(s) - materials science , silicone rubber , supercritical fluid , vulcanization , porosity , saturation (graph theory) , composite material , fumed silica , blowing agent , fabrication , natural rubber , medicine , chemistry , alternative medicine , organic chemistry , pathology , mathematics , combinatorics , polyurethane
In spite of great concern on the wide application of silicone rubber foams, few works have been reported about easy‐operating foaming method. In this study, the effects of silica content and foaming process on the porous structure of high‐temperature‐vulcanized silicon rubber foams are evaluated, which are prepared by supercritical CO 2 at different conditions, with fumed silica used for reinforcement. Silicone rubber foams with cell size in 8–120 μm, cell density in 10 5 –10 8 cm −3 , and density between 0.45 and 0.9 g cm −3 are prepared under different saturation conditions. The results show that increasing silica content can decrease cell size. It is also found that cell density improves exponentially with increasing saturation pressure and decreasing saturation temperature. Besides, it demands less than 1 h for specimens to reach equilibrium on thickness around 3 mm. All the results indicate that the porous structures of silicone foams can be tailored by foaming process parameters facilely and are predictable with fitted equation.