Surface Characterization of Silicone Rubbers by Corona Discharge

코로나 방전처리에 따른 실리콘 고무의 표면특성 변화

In this paper we investigated the changes of surface hydrophobic characteristics on silicone rubbers by corona discharge treatment and also investigated the distribution and the behavior of low molecular weight(LMW) silicone fluid which was extracted by solvent-extraction with gel permeation chromatography(GPC). It was shown that contact angle was $110.5^{\circ}$ on initial sample but contact angle was approximately decreased to $10^{\circ}$ after 45 minutes. However the surface hydrophobic characteristic on silicone rubbers which were removed from corona discharge was recovered within 5 hours. It was shown that corona discharge insured the increase of diffusible LMW chains, which could lead to recover the surface hydrophobicity. The surface hydrophobic characteristics on silicone rubbers and the recovery mechanism based on our results were discussed.