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Small Angle Scattering and the Structure and Dynamics of Filled and Unfilled Rubbers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2011

Erik Geissler
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de Spectrométrie Physique, CNRS UMR 5588, Université J. Fourier de Grenoble, 38402 St Martin d'Héres cedex, France
Anne-Marie Hecht
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de Spectrométrie Physique, CNRS UMR 5588, Université J. Fourier de Grenoble, 38402 St Martin d'Héres cedex, France
Cyrille Rochas
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de Spectrométrie Physique, CNRS UMR 5588, Université J. Fourier de Grenoble, 38402 St Martin d'Héres cedex, France
Ferenc Horkay
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Integrative and Medical Biophysics, National Institutes of Health, 13 South Drive, Bethesda MD 20892, USA
Françoise Bley
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de Thermodynamique et Physico-chimie métallurgiques, CNRS UMR 4777, INPG, 38402 St Martin d'Hères cedex, France
Frédéric Livet
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de Thermodynamique et Physico-chimie métallurgiques, CNRS UMR 4777, INPG, 38402 St Martin d'Hères cedex, France
Mark Sutton
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
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Abstract

Random cross-linking in rubbers produces local variations in the elasticity of the network. These variations, whose characteristic size lies in the range 1-100 nm, are revealed when the rubber is swollen in a low molecular weight solvent, owing to the competition between the osmotic pressure of the solvent and the local elastic constraints, which affects the local polymer concentration. Such concentration fluctuations can be measured by small angle X-ray or neutron scattering (SAXS or SANS) as well as by dynamic light scattering.

In filled elastomers, the filler modifies the distribution of the polymer and of the elastic constraints. Swelling these systems in a solvent in which the deuteron/proton ratio can be varied permits the different components in the scattering function of the polymer and of the filler to be separated. Observations on silica particles in a poly(dimethyl siloxane) (PDMS) rubber yield measurements not only of the surface area of the particles but also of the fraction of the surface area occupied by the polymer. Analysis of the dynamic light scattering response of these systems gives confirmation of the validity of the procedure.

Coherent X-ray scattering measurements, combined with dynamic light scattering measurements of the filled uncross-linked polymer melts in the absence of solvent reveal that the structural relaxation process that follows an external mechanical perturbation is a diffusioncontrolled process.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2001

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References

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