Spontaneous adhesion of silicone rubber

Lightly crosslinked silicone rubber has been found to bond spontaneouly to polar substrates and to itself. The strength of adhesion increases linearly with time, eventually reaching the fracture strength of the rubber. The process is accelerated by raising the temperature (activation energy ⋍ 60 kJ/g. mol), by the presence of moisture, and by ammonia vapor. It is tentatively attributed to hydrolytic decomposition of the polymer leading to the formation of reactive groups which interlink with surface groups, probably hydroxyls, on polar substrates, or with each other in the case of selfadhesion.