A series of microcellular silicone rubber/silica/polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) foams were prepared by supercritical carbon dioxide. The effect of POSS particles on the rheological behavior, vulcanizing, and cellular morphology of the composites was investigated. The results showed that the POSS grafted carboxylic acid group can improve the matrix strength of silicone rubber. POSS grafted carboxylic acid group act as inhibiting agent in the vulcanizing process. POSS particles play an important role in the microcellular structure formation. When the POSS content was 2.0?wt%, the cell size and cell density can reach to 3.77?µm and 7.99?×?109 cell/cm3, respectively. 相似文献
Supercritical CO2 as a blowing agent has attracted increasing interest in the preparation of microcellular polyamide 6 (PA6) foams. In this work, we developed the supercritical CO2-assisted method to prepare a series of different microcellular PA6 foams by controlling its crystallization properties in two steps and carefully investigated the corresponding crystallization properties of modified PA6 and foams using various techniques. Initially, a multifunctional epoxy-based chain extender (CE) was used to produce high-melt strength-modified PA6 with improved foaming ability; then, the resulting PA6 was foamed to prepare the microcellular foams of PA6 using supercritical CO2 as a blowing agent in a batch foaming route. The CE effectively enhanced the melt strength of PA6, and CE usage was optimized to obtain a threshold of high branching without crosslinking. The number of crystals was also adjusted by the saturation temperature. Furthermore, these crystals that formed during the saturation process served as high-efficiency bubble nucleating agents and then limited the growth of bubbles at the same time. The microcellular foams of PA6 were successfully obtained with a cell size of 10.0 μm, and cell density of 2.0 × 109 cells/cm3 at the saturation temperature of 225°C. 相似文献
In spite of great concern on the industrial application of microcellular silicone rubber foams, such as in electric and medical devices, only a few works can be found about the foaming of silicone rubber. In this study, microcellular silicone rubber foams with a cell size of 12 μm were successfully prepared with curing by heat and foaming by supercritical CO2 as a green blowing agent. The microcellular silicone rubber foams exhibited a well-defined cell structure and a uniform cell size distribution. The crosslinking and foaming of silicone rubber was carried out separately. After foaming, the silicone rubber foam was cross-linked again to stabilize the foam structure and further improve its mechanical properties. Foaming process of cross-linked silicone rubber should be designed carefully based on the viscoelastic properties because of its elastic volume recovery in the atmosphere. The basic crosslinking condition for small cell size and high cell density was obtained after investigating the rheological behavior during crosslinking. 相似文献
Composite membranes (CM) were prepared by coating the dense surface of different asymmetric polysulfone flat membranes (AM) with a solution of silicone rubber polymer. The surface porosity (ε) of the dense skin AM samples varied between 4 × 10?5 and 1·5 × 10?8, with an average mean pore size between 0·10 and 0·07 μm. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), gas permeation experiments (H2, N2, CH4, CO2) and a simple resistance model were used for the determination of structure-permeability relationships. This study indicates that the CM prepared with polysulfone AM having ε < 3 × 10?7, coated with a concentration of 6% silicone solution and a contact time of 1 min, has the best gas separation performance, with selectivities very close to the intrinsic polysulfone selectivities. 相似文献
The effects of processing parameters such as processing pressure, temperature, mixing time and rotor speed on polyvinyl chloride foams were investigated by using a novel microcellular foaming setup. The experimental results show that a proper temperature and a high pressure can promote CO2 dissolving in polymer, which makes cell density increase and cell size decrease. Increasing mixing time and rotor speed also promote CO2 dissolving in PVC and speed up forming single-phase polymer/CO2 solution. The effects of oscillatory shear on polyvinyl chloride cell morphology were also studied. The combined shear improves the mixing, and thus shortens the time needed for homogeneous polymer/supercritical CO2 solution formation. Foamed samples with the cell density of 1.0 × 107–3.5 × 108 cells/cm3, average cell size of 15–60 µm and bulk density of 0.6–0.87 g/cm3 had been produced. 相似文献
Intercalated and exfoliated polystyrene/nano‐clay composites were prepared by mechanical blending and in situ polymerization respectively. The composites were then foamed by using CO2 as the foaming agent in an extrusion foaming process. The resulting foam structure is compared with that of pure polystyrene and polystyrene/talc composite. At a screw rotation speed of 10 rpm and a die temperature of 200°C, the addition of a small amount (i.e., 5 wt%) of intercalated nano‐clay greatly reduces cell size from 25.3 to 11.1 μm and increases cell density from 2.7 × 107 to 2.8 × 108 cells/cm3. Once exfoliated, the nanocomposite exhibits the highest cell density (1.5 × 109 cells/cm3) and smallest cell size (4.9 μm) at the same particle concentration. Compared with polystyrene foams, the nanocomposite foams exhibit higher tensile modulus, improved fire retardance, and better barrier property. Combining nanocomposites and the extrusion foaming process provides a new technique for the design and control of cell structure in microcellular foams. 相似文献
In spite of great concern on the wide application of silicone rubber foams, few works have been reported about easy‐operating foaming method. In this study, the effects of silica content and foaming process on the porous structure of high‐temperature‐vulcanized silicon rubber foams are evaluated, which are prepared by supercritical CO2 at different conditions, with fumed silica used for reinforcement. Silicone rubber foams with cell size in 8–120 μm, cell density in 105–108 cm−3, and density between 0.45 and 0.9 g cm−3 are prepared under different saturation conditions. The results show that increasing silica content can decrease cell size. It is also found that cell density improves exponentially with increasing saturation pressure and decreasing saturation temperature. Besides, it demands less than 1 h for specimens to reach equilibrium on thickness around 3 mm. All the results indicate that the porous structures of silicone foams can be tailored by foaming process parameters facilely and are predictable with fitted equation.
Summary: Via a batch process in an autoclave, foam processing of intercalated PC/clay nanocomposites, having different amounts of clay, has been conducted using supercritical CO2 as a foaming agent. The cellular structures obtained from various foaming temperature‐CO2 pressure ranges were investigated by SEM. The incorporation with nanoclay‐induced heterogeneous nucleation occurs because of a lower activation energy barrier compared with homogeneous nucleation as revealed by the characterization of the interfacial tension between bubble and matrix. The controlled structure of the PCCN foams changed from microcellular (d ? 20 µm and Nc ? 1.0 × 109 cells · cm?3) to nanocellular (d ? 600 nm and Nc ? 3.0 × 1013 cells · cm?3). The mechanical properties of PCCN foams under compression test were discussed.
TEM micrograph for the structure of the cell wall foamed at 160 °C. 相似文献