Research on RTV Vulcanization Performance Based on Hydrophobicity, SEM, FTIR and TGA

Abstract

To study the difference in performance of room temperature vulcanized silicone rubber(RTV) under different temperature and humidity, the hydrophobicity, hydrophobicity migration, functional groups, and thermal stability of RTV were analyzed by static contact angle method, SEM, FTIR and TGA. The contact angle test results indicates that the RTV hydrophobicity changed little with the increase of vulcanization temperature, while the hydrophobicity increased slightly with the increase of humidity. Both of the vulcanization temperature and humidity had evident effects on the hydrophobicity transfer of RTV. When the vulcanization temperature was 5°C and the vulcanization humidity was 95%, the transfer of hydrophobicity was better. The vulcanization humidity and temperature had large influence on the functional groups of RTV according to FTIR results. Compared with that of samples vulcanized at 25°C, the intensity of O-H and Si(CH3)3 peaks of samples vulcanized 5°C and 65°C is lower. The contents of functional groups of samples vulcanized at 15% relative humidity is obviously low. Meanwhile, vulcanization humidity and temperature affect the thermal stability of RTV. The thermal stability of RTV got worse at the vulcanization temperature of 5°C and the vulcanization humidity of 15%, 95%.