Near-superhydrophobic silicone microcapsule arrays encapsulating ionic liquid electrolytes for micro-power storage assuming use in seawater

EVA and SEBS-MA copolymers incorporated silicone rubber/SEBS blends: improvement of mechanical and thermal properties

Enhancing the mechanical and thermal properties of Silicone rubber (SR)/SEBS blends using various compatibilizers opens the opportunity for such new blends to meet the market desire. For this purpose, blends with a 1:1 ratio of SR and SEBS are prepared with different amounts of EVA or SEBS-MA copolymers as compatibilizer. Mechanical properties of the blend are enhanced by adding EVA and SEBS-MA. Addition of 6 phr EVA profoundly improves the tensile strength from 7.70 to 10.06 MPa. Thermogravimetric analysis reveals that the presence of compatibilizer can improve the thermal stability of the blend, especially its initial degradation temperature (T5%). T5% of the blend increases from 376 to 390 °C when comprising 6 phr SEBS-MA. Morphology of the blends is investigated using SEM and AFM. Results of the relaxation modulus curves obtained by rubber process analyzer (RPA) demonstrate that the amount of relaxation in the uncured blends is higher than the cured ones. A comparison of the relaxation of the blends indicates that the relaxation modulus of the SEBS-MA compatibilized blends is enhanced more than other blends after curing. Further investigations indicate that the compatibilized blends exhibit higher tear energy and lower compression set.

Transparent Gelation of Ionic Liquids Trapped in Silicone Microcup Structures under Scanning Electron Microscopy

It is expected that ionic liquids will be used in the future as electrolytes for electric double layer capacitors, but currently microencapsulation with a conductive or porous shell is required for their fabrication. Here, we succeeded in fabricating a transparently gelled ionic liquid trapped in hemispherical silicone microcup structures just by observing with a scanning electron microscope (SEM), which allows the microencapsulation process to be eliminated and electrical contacts to be formed directly. To see the gelation, small amounts of ionic liquid were exposed to the SEM electron beam on flat aluminum, silicon, silica glass, and silicone rubber. The ionic liquid gelled on all the plates, and a color change to brown was observed on all the plates except for silicone rubber. This change might be caused by reflected and/or secondary electrons from the plates producing isolated carbon. Silicone rubber could remove the isolated carbon due to the large amount of oxygen inside it. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy revealed that the gelled ionic liquid included a large amount of the original ionic liquid. Moreover, the transparent, flat gelled ionic liquid could also be made into three-layer structures on silicone rubber. Consequently, the present transparent gelation is suitable for silicone rubber-based microdevices.