Characterization of HTV silicone rubber with different content of ATH filler by mechanical measurements, FTIR and XPS analyzes

In the present paper, five filled HTV silicone rubber with different ATH filler content were characterized by mechanical measurement, FTIR analysis and XPS analysis. It has been found that the ATH filler had a bad combination effect with silicone rubber matrix, for the ATH filler without surface medication, the interaction between ATH filler and silicone rubber was physical interaction, the poor interaction leads to low mechanical performance of silicone rubber with ATH filler being added in the matrix. The addition of ATH filler leads to an increase of hydroxyl (-OH) and a decrease of Si (CH3)2. The decrease of Si (CH3)2 with adding ATH filler into silicone rubber matrix indicated that the ATH filler has a spacing effect which can limit the crosslink of silicone rubber. Due to the migration of LMW, the surface of ATH filler will be covered by LWM, while the analysis depth of XPS is nm, so no Al element can be detected on the surface of silicone rubber. Thus, the XPS analysis is not suitable for detecting the ATH filler in silicone rubber. Based on this research, an in-depth understanding of the mechanical properties of silicone rubber with different ATH content as well as the related FTIR and XPS results have been obtained.