• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.802-812
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• 2016

Silicone foam is very useful as flame resistant material for many industrial areas such as high performance gasketing, thermal shielding, vibration mounts, and press pads. A silicone foam was prepared through simultaneous crosslinking and foaming by hydrogen condensation reaction of a vinyl-containing polysiloxane (V-silicone) and a hydroxyl-containing polysiloxane (OH-silicone) with hydride containing polysiloxane (H-silicone) in the presence of platinum catalyst and imorganic filler at room temperature. This is more convenient process for silicone foam manufacturing than the conventional separated crosslinking and foaming systems. Funtionalized silicones we used in this experiment were consisted with a V-silicone containing 1,0 meq/g of vinyl groups and a viscosity of 20 Pa-s, an OH-silicone with 0.4 meq/g of hydroxyl groups and a viscosity from 50 Pa-s, and an H-silicone containing 7.5 meq/g of hydride groups and a viscosity of 0.06 Pa.s. The effects of compositions of functionalized silicones and additives, such as catalyst and filler on the structure and mechanical properties of silicone foam were studied. 0.5 wt% of Pt catalyst was enough to accelerate the foaming rate of silicone resins. The addition of OH-silicone with lower viscosity accelerates the initial foaming rate and decreases the foam density, but the addition of V-silicone with lower viscosity reduces the tensile strength as well as the elongation. The final foam density, tensile strength, and elogation of silicone foam prepared under the SF-3 condition increase maximum to $0.58g/cm^3$, $3,51kg_f/cm^2$, and 176 %, repectively. We found out the filler alumina also played an important role to improve the mechanical properties of silicone foams in our foaming system.