A novel crosslinking agent of polymethyl(ketoxime)siloxane for room temperature vulcanized silicone rubbers: synthesis, properties and thermal stability

A novel cross-linker polymethyl(ketoxime)siloxane (PMKS) with dense pendant reactive groups based on polymethylhydrosiloxane (PMHS) was synthesized via dehydrocoupling reaction. The novel PMKS cross-linker was applied to a hydroxyl-terminated polydimethylsiloxane (HPDMS) matrix to prepare a series of novel RTV silicone rubbers. The chemical structure of PMKS and curing reaction between HPDMS and PMKS by hydrolytic condensation were verified by IR spectroscopy and ¹H NMR. Thermal stability and mechanical properties of these novel RTV silicone rubbers have been studied by means of thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) and universal tensile testing machine, respectively. The results displayed that a pronounced enhancement effect of the novel cross-linker PMKS on thermal stabilities and mechanical properties of RTV silicone rubbers as compared with the traditional cross-linking agent of methyltris(methylethylketoximino)silane (MTKS). Subsequently, the degradation residues were also characterized by FT-IR and X-ray photoelectron spectrometer (XPS). It was found that the striking enhancements in thermal properties and improvements on mechanical properties could be the synergistic effect of the T-type branched structure of PMKS cross-linker, in situ formation of dense PMKS phase in the chain network by self-crosslinking and the uniform distribution of PMKS cross-linker in the HPDMS matrix.

A novel cross-linker polymethyl(ketoxime)siloxane was synthesized and then was cured with hydroxyl-terminated polydimethylsiloxane matrix to fabricate a series of novel RTV silicone rubber. Their properties was comparatively investigated.

Temperature and exposure dependence of hybrid organic-inorganic layer formation by sequential vapor infiltration into polymer fibers

The characteristic processing behavior for growth of a conformal nanoscale hybrid organic-inorganic modification to polyamide 6 (PA6) by sequential vapor infiltration (SVI) is demonstrated. The SVI process is a materials growth technique by which exposure of organometallic vapors to a polymeric material promotes the formation of a hybrid organic-inorganic modification at the near surface region of the polymer. This work investigates the SVI exposure temperature and cycling times of sequential exposures of trimethylaluminum (TMA) on PA6 fiber mats. The result of TMA exposure is the preferential subsurface organic-inorganic growth by diffusion into the polymer and reaction with the carbonyl in PA6. Mass gain, infrared spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy analysis indicate enhanced materials growth and uniformity at lower processing temperatures. The inverse relationship between mass gain and exposure temperature is explained by the formation of a hybrid layer that prevents the diffusion of TMA into the polymer to react with the PA6 upon subsequent exposure cycles. As few as 10 SVI exposure cycles are observed to saturate the growth, yielding a modified thickness of ∼75 nm and mass increase of ∼14 wt %. Removal of the inherent PA6 moisture content reduces the mass gain by ∼4 wt % at low temperature exposures. The ability to understand the characteristic growth process is critical for the development of the hybrid materials fabrication and modification techniques.