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Lookup NU author(s): Abdulraheem Alrefai, Dr Yuan XuORCiD, Emeritus Professor Steve Bull, Professor Mark GeogheganORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
© 2025 The Author(s). Journal of Applied Polymer Science published by Wiley Periodicals LLC. Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) elastomers are widely used in biomedical, microfluidic, and flexible electronic applications due to their tunable mechanical properties. Modifying PDMS through hydrosilylation offers a controlled approach to tailor elasticity and network structure. PDMS elastomers were synthesized via a hydrosilylation reaction, and their mechanical and rheological properties were compared with the commercial Sylgard 184 formulation. Sylgard 184 PDMS elastomers exhibit elastic moduli ranging from 0.63 to 2.46 MPa, depending on the base-to-agent ratio, as calculated from compression and tensile testing. PDMS elastomers prepared by hydrosilylation show elastic moduli varying between 0.67 and 1.32 MPa, depending on the base chain length and the mole ratio of base to crosslinker, as calculated under similar testing conditions. In contrast, moduli calculated from rheology storage modulus data are significantly lower than those from mechanical tests. The moduli of Sylgard 184 samples are between 0.32 and 0.80 MPa, whereas rheological data for the hydrosilylation formulations yield moduli that range from 0.26 to 0.47 MPa. Although the modulus results using a hydrosilylation reaction are lower than those of the commercial polymer, they remain comparable, so the hydrosilylation reaction provides an alternative elastomer formulation with the advantage of greater control over its mechanical and rheological properties.
Author(s): Alrefai AA, Petroli A, Xu Y, Bull SJ, Geoghegan M
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Journal of Applied Polymer Science
Year: 2025
Pages: Epub ahead of print
Online publication date: 17/09/2025
Acceptance date: 01/09/2025
Date deposited: 30/09/2025
ISSN (print): 0021-8995
ISSN (electronic): 1097-4628
Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Inc.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/app.57953
DOI: 10.1002/app.57953
Data Access Statement: The data supporting the findings of this work are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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