Abstract
Due to the growing demand for versatile hybrid materials that can withstand harsh conditions (below −40 °C), fluorosilicone copolymers are becoming promising materials that can overcome the limited operating temperature of conventional rubber. In order to synthesize a fluorosilicone copolymer, a potent initiator capable of simultaneously initiating various siloxane monomers in anionic ring-opening polymerization (AROP) is required. In this study, tetramethyl ammonium silanolate (TMAS), a quaternary ammonium (QA) anion, was employed as an initiator for AROP, thereby fluoro-methyl-vinyl-silicone (FVMQ) and fluoro-hydrido-methyl-silicone (FHMQ) were successfully synthesized under optimized conditions. FT-IR, NMR, and GPC analyses confirmed that the chain length and functional group content of FVMQ and FHMQ are controlled by changing the ratio of the components. Moreover, fluorine-involved liquid silicone rubber (F-LSR) was prepared with FVMQ as the main chain and FHMQ as a crosslinker. The tensile strength, elongation, and hardness of each F-LSR sample were measured. Finally, it was confirmed through TGA, DSC, TR-test, and embrittlement testing that elastic retention at low temperatures improved even though the heat resistance slightly decreased as the trifluoropropyl group increased in F-LSR. We anticipate that the optimization of fluorosilicone synthesis initiated by QA and the comprehensive characterization of F-LSRs with different fluorine content and chain lengths will be pivotal to academia and industry.
Funder
Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy
Subject
Polymers and Plastics,General Chemistry
Reference53 articles.
1. History of organic–inorganic hybrid materials: Prehistory, art, science, and advanced applications;Faustini;Adv. Funct. Mater.,2018
2. A review on silicone rubber;Shit;Natl. Acad. Sci. Lett.,2013
3. Additive manufacturing of silicone structures: A review and prospective;Liravi;Addit. Manuf.,2018
4. A review of poly[(3,3,3-trifluoropropyl)methylsiloxane]: Synthesis, properties and applications;Yang;Eur. Polym. J.,2022
5. Polyfluoroalkyl siloxanes with varying trifluoropropyl content: Synthesis, characterization and solvent resistance studies;Indulekha;J. Fluor. Chem.,2017