The Effect of Filler on the Properties of Silicone Rubber

Abstract

Fillers play important roles in the performances of silicone rubber, such as mechanical and physical properties. In this paper, the silicone rubber filled with silica in a wide volume range was measured in order to study the effects of filler loading on the mechanical properties of silicone rubber. The composites samples added with surface treated silica filler was characterized by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and fluorescent microscope with that reinforced by the unmodified filler as a comparison. The results showed that the surface treated filler are more easily diffused without agglomerate in the polymer network compared to the unmodifiedd filler. Incorporation of modified filler loading leads to the increase in both tensile strength and the elongation at break, but along with further increase in filler content, mechanical properties of silicone rubber decreased due to the filler particles aggregate state, which can be observed by SEM images. The tack-free time and the hardness of the silicone rubber decrease as the filler loading increases.