Mechanical and structural characterization of poly (dimethylsiloxane)‎ in the presence of reinforcing filler particles

Abstract EN

Three tetralkoxysilanes Si(OR)4, namely tetramethoxy, tetraethoxy and tetrapropoxy silanes were hydrolyzed into networks of polydimethylsiloxane [Si(CH3)2]x to precipitate reinforcing particles of SiO2.

All of the organofunctional silane compounds used showed a significant capacity to hydrolyze.

Tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) was found to be the most efficient in this regard.

However, the rate of hydrolysis lead to a different amount of filler precipitation among different samples.

Tetrapropoxysilane (TPOS) yielded the highest amount of filler precipitation and tetramethoxysilane (TMOS) yielded the least.

Although TEOS gave less amounts of filler precipitation as compared to TPOS, the particles precipitated from TEOS were more uniform, as SEM showed, and hence gave a better reinforcing mechanical behavior.