Exploring the influence of co-monomer content in the dry crosslinked ethylene octene copolymer based blends

Abstract

This article illustrates the influence of co-monomer content in the ethylene octene copolymer (EOC) on the dry curing process of EOC:PDMS rubber blends. The EOC:PDMS blends were prepared by melt mixing in an internal mixer and crosslinked through electron beam radiation method. During electron beam irradiation both the EOC and PDMS phase gets crosslinked; which is evident from the gel content study. From the rheology analysis, it is understood that the EOC with high octene (co-monomer) content has better radiation crosslinkability as compared with the EOC with low co-monomer content. Through radiation crosslinking, the physico-mechanical properties of the EOC:PDMS system was improved significantly. The tensile strength of high co-monomer content EOC:PDMS 70:30 blends were drastically improved by 49.5% on irradiation with a dosage of 75 kGy. Morphology study of the EOC:PDMS system were carried out by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and correlated with the physico-mechanical properties. The radiation crosslinked blends shows higher volume resistivity, lower dielectric constant, and loss as compared with the uncrosslinked counterparts. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2016. © 2016 Society of Plastics Engineers