Hollow silica sphere as filler for RTV-1 silicone rubber. Issue 1 (5th December 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Gu, Wenjuan; Guo, Zhimin; Nan, Pengtao; Hu, Yang; He, Banggui
• Is Part Of: Emerging materials research. Volume 5:Issue 1(2016)
• Page Start: 1
• Page End: 20
• Publication Date: 2016-12-05
• Subjects: Materials -- Periodicals; 620.11
• DOI: 10.1680/jemmr.16.00062
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2046-0147

Abstract

Abstract : Hollow silica spheres were synthesized and used as filler for RTV-1 silicone rubber. Template-assist method was chosen to prepare this special kind of filler. PVAc sphere was obtained by dispersion polymerization. Spheres with diameter among 100-500 nm were selected as sacrificial template to synthesize hollow silica spheres. TEOS was chosen as silicone source. Silica shell formed synchronously with the template core dissolution by coating the silicone source on the template by sol-gel method. The diameter of the hollow silica sphere was determined by the template size. The shell thickness was controlled by adjusting the amount of silicone resource. The morphologies of the template and filler were characterized by TEM. The silicone rubber was strengthened with the filler prepared in this method. The swelling rate of RTV-1 silicone rubber was also tested to further explain the reinforcing effect. The possible mechanism for this behavior is brought forward in this paper.