362. Reversible Dynamic Behavior of Condensation-Cured Silicone Elastomers Caused by a Catalyst
Alena Jurásková, Stefan Møller Olsen, and Anne Ladegaard Skov; Macromolecular Materials and Engineering (2022); DOI: 10.1002/mame.202200615 (open access)
This study demonstrates that dibutyltin-dilaurate (DBTL), commonly used to catalyze condensation-cured silicone elastomers, causes dynamic behavior in the silicone network, which is attributed to the catalyst finding a way to become part of the elastomer network. Furthermore, it establishes that by choosing an appropriate silanol-terminated polydimethylsiloxane (HO-PDMS-OH) chain length, the catalyst causes the gelation of the system without a cross-linker. To the best of authors' knowledge, this is the first time that the DBTL catalyst is shown, apart from the catalytic effect, to have the ability to act as a cross-linker.