Bahrt, Frederikke

Daugaard, Anders Egede

Fleury, Clemence

Hvilsted, Søren

Skov, Anne Ladegaard

RSC Advances

F. B. Madsen

A. E. Daugaard

C. Fleury

S. Hvilsted

A. L. Skov

Crossref

Visualisation and characterisation of heterogeneous bimodal PDMS networks

The existence of short-chain domains in heterogeneous bimodal PDMS networks has been confirmedvisually, for the first time, through confocal fluorescence microscopy. The networks were prepared usinga controlled reaction scheme where short PDMS chains were reacted below the gelation point intohyperbranched structures using a fluorescent silicone compatible cross-linker. The formation of thehyperbranched structures was confirmed by FTIR, 1H-NMR and size exclusion chromatography (SEC).The short-chain hyperbranched structures were thereafter mixed with long-chain hyperbranchedstructures to form bimodal networks with short-chain domains within a long-chain network. Theaverage sizes of the short-chain domains were found to vary from 2.1 to 5.7 mm depending on theshort-chain content. The visualised network structure could be correlated thereafter to the elasticproperties, which were determined by rheology. All heterogeneous bimodal networks displayedsignificantly lower moduli than mono-modal PDMS elastomers prepared from the long polymer chains.Low-loss moduli as well as low-sol fractions indicate that low-elastic moduli can be obtained withoutcompromising the network's structur

Online Research Database In Technology

http://orbit.dtu.dk/ws/files/106060743/RSC_OA_c3ra47522k.pdf

Visualisation and characterisation of heterogeneous bimodal PDMS networks

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Online Research Database In Technology