Construction of Tensile Strength and Density Prediction Models for Semi-Interpenetrating Polymer Network from Fluoroelastomer and Poly(dimethylsiloxane)

Abstract

Interpenetrating polymer networks (IPNs) have attracted considerable attention due to the forced miscibility compared with usually incompatible blends. In this article, semi-IPNs composed of linear fluoroelastomer F2314 and cross-linked poly­(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) were synthesized by changing the mass ratio of F2314/PDMS and the molar ratio of [NCO]/[OH], and the properties of the prepared samples were studied. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) confirmed the F2314/PDMS semi-IPNs with microphase separation. Considering the unique microscopic structure of the semi-IPNs, the prediction models for the tensile strength and density of semi-IPNs were developed by analyzing the experimental data and calculation data from the kinetic Monte Carlo simulation using the BFGS quasi-Newton algorithm to quantify the effect of the extent of interpenetration on the properties. Furthermore, the performance shows that the prediction errors of the tensile strength and density are within 10 and 2%, respectively.

Correlating Nanomechanical Mapping and Single-Molecule Localization Microscopy for Local Properties in Interpenetrating Network Elastomers

“…One common fabrication method for IPNs is to polymerize two monomers simultaneously, and at least one of the two monomers forms a network. ,, If the resulting polymers are thermodynamically incompatible, the initially homogeneous reaction mixture becomes phase-separated as a result of polymerization. However, the microstructure is kinetically trapped in a nonequilibrium state as cross-linking occurs, resulting in incomplete phase separation and mixing between the normally incompatible polymers at the nanoscale. , This incomplete phase separation is traditionally observed by ensemble-based measurements of macroscopic samples, such as shifts in glass transition temperature ( T g ) and changes in X-ray scattering intensity. ,,− In a previous study, we used small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) to measure the degree of mixing in poly­(dimethylsiloxane)/poly­(methyl methacrylate) (PDMS/PMMA) IPNs by investigating the differences in the scattering length density of the two phases. We showed that the degree of mixing increases as the minority phase fraction decreases .…”

Vat Photopolymerization of Synthetic Isoprene Rubber Latexes

“…Previous studies illustrated the correlation of hard component content with brittleness in an sIPN system. 35,36 Similarly, the highly cross-linked scaffold network functioned as the hard component in the photocured SIR system and caused lower strain at break above 9.1 wt %. Additionally, increasing scaffold content restricted the mobility of embedded SIR latex particles in the printed green body, compromising the interparticle coalescence during postprocessing.…”