Aging Behaviors of Silicone Rubber Composite Materials under Outdoor Environment

• Published in: Journal of Wuhan University of Technology. Materials science edition Vol. 31; no. 6; pp. 1289 - 1293
• Main Authors: Huang, Zhen, Lin, Hongsheng, Peng, Xiangyang, Wang, Zheng, Wang, Rui, Li, Zijian, Fang, Pengfei
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Wuhan Wuhan University of Technology 01.12.2016; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Advanced Materials; Chain scission; Chemistry and Materials Science; Composite materials; Low molecular weights; Mass spectrometry; Materials Science; Molecular structure; Outdoor; Silicone rubber; Siloxanes; 低分子量; 化学结构; 室外环境; 户外环境; 橡胶复合材料; 气相色谱-质谱法; 环状硅氧烷; 老化行为; silicone rubber; cyclic siloxane; degradation; aging behavior
• ISSN: 1000-2413; 1993-0437
• DOI: 10.1007/s11595-016-1528-z

We investigated the aging effect on the chemical structure of silicone rubber composite materials under outdoor environment. The variations of low molecular weight siloxanes in silicone rubber were probed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry during the degradation process. The experimental results indicate that a series of cyclic siloxanes exist in both the virgin and aged silicone rubber samples, while the additional low molecular weight siloxanes（hexamethyl cyclotrisiloxane） only appear in the aged samples. Meanwhile, the total amounts of low molecular weight siloxanes in the aged samples are much less than those in the virgin ones. The loss of low molecular weight siloxanes is induced by the chain scission and depolymerization.