Assessment of Silicone Rubber Properties Using Dynamic Modelling Simulation

Abstract

The investigation of silicone rubber properties with the presence of platinum catalyst at different temperature using molecular dynamic simulation was conducted. Visual observation shows that structuring of silicone rubber occurs in the cell where the molecules aggregates closer compared to at the beginning of the simulation and at higher platinum concentration, silicone rubber molecules are more closely packed together. The diffusion coefficient of silicone rubber are the highest in a 10% platinum concentration followed by 25% and lastly 50% indicating that it is harder for the silicone rubber molecules to move from its original position in the system as the platinum concentration increases. Structural changes was also investigated through radial distribution function (RDF) where the position of peaks did not change with time but there is changes observed in the intensity of the peak. At a constant temperature 50°C, it was observed that the intensity of the peak at 1.10Å radius was the highest in the presence of 50%Pt followed by 25%Pt and 10%Pt. This indicates that higher numbers of silicone rubber molecules are present in a 1.10Å radius from the reference molecules in a system with higher concentration of platinum.