Summary:
An increase in the availability of the active ingredient from silicone matrices can be achieved by
using sodium chloride as the filler. An addition of sodium chloride also influences the mechanical
properties of silicone systems. The temperature dependence of real Young’s model E’ of addition
silicone systems with sodium chloride was measured. With increasing NaCl concentration in the
silicone system, the values of Young’smodule E are increased. The increase is also influenced by the
particle size of NaCl. The values of the module are moderately increased also with increasing
temperature, which corresponds to the kinetic theory of caoutchouc elasticity. A significant increase
in E takes place at NaCl concentrations higher than 20 %.With a 50 % NaCl content in the system,
E is increased approximately 3.5 times in comparison with an unfilled sample. Various theories of
elastic behaviour of composites can be employed for the description of the effect of the filler on the
mechanical properties of silicone systems under small deformations. The effect of chloride is best
described by the relation proposed by Nielsen. The value of the constant A in Nielsen’s relation,
dependent on the shape of the filler particles and Poisson’s constant of the unfilled matrix, decreases
with increasing particle size.With a change in particle size, a certain change in particle shape takes
place. Hydrodynamic theory provides good results for sodium chloride particle size of 102.5 µm, but
for particle sizes of 20 µm and 60 µm it is less successful than Nielsen’s relation.
Key words:
silicones – mechanical properties – fillers – sodium chloride
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