Particle sizes of reinforcing silica precipitated into elastomeric networks

The toxicity of precipitated silica.

Aging effects of precipitated silica in poly(dimethylsiloxane)

e report the transformation from gels to viscous fluids within a time period of 101–103 h in ixtures of precipitated silica in silicone oil. Scaling behavior in elastic and viscous moduli versus requency, similar to that reported by Trappe and Weitz Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 449–452 2000 , has een observed for suspensions of different ages, silica volume fractions, and silicone oil molecular eights;...

Drop sizes and particle coverage in emulsions stabilised solely by silica nanoparticles of irregular shape.

We have investigated emulsions stabilised solely by partially-hydrophobised fumed silica particles which consist of a mixture of primary particles and irregularly-shaped fused aggregates and larger agglomerates. The particle wettability is controlled by varying the extent of hydrophobisation of their surfaces. This, in turn, controls the contact angle between the oil-water interface and the par...

Understanding Mechanical Response of Elastomeric Graphene Networks

Ultra-light porous networks based on nano-carbon materials (such as graphene or carbon nanotubes) have attracted increasing interest owing to their applications in wide fields from bioengineering to electrochemical devices. However, it is often difficult to translate the properties of nanomaterials to bulk three-dimensional networks with a control of their mechanical properties. In this work, w...

Aggregation of Fillers Blended into Random Elastomeric Networks: Theory and Comparison with Experiments

Significant aggregation takes place when nanoparticles are blended into a random amorphous polymeric medium, contrary to in situ generation which results in uniform size distributions. In the present paper, we propose a theoretical model to study the size and distribution of aggregates that take place when the particles are blended into a random amorphous mobile elastomeric medium. We test the ...