Abstract

In this paper we investigated the characteristics of surface degradation in silicone rubber due to corona exposure and recovery mechanism. It was shown that surface free energy was 22.42 mJ/$m^2$ on initial sample but surface free energy was approximately increased to 71.14 mJ/$m^2$ after 45 minutes. However, surface free energy on silicone rubber after corona discharge treatment was completely recovered within a short time due to diffusion of low molecular weight(LMW) silicone fluid. It was shown that corona discharge insured the increase of diffusible LMW chains, which could lead to recover the surface hydrophobicity. 200～370 g/mol distribution of LMW silicone fluid which was extracted by solvent-extraction with gel permeation chromatography (GPC) was contributed to recovery. The surface degradation characteristics on silicone rubbers and the recovery mechanism based on our results were discussed.

Keywords

• Corona discharge;
• Hydrophobicity;
• LMW;
• Silicone rubber

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References

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