Preparation and Performance of Phenyl-Vinyl-POSS/Addition-Type Curable Silicone Rubber Hybrid Material

1,3,5,7,9,11,13-heptaphenyl-15-vinyl cage half siloxane (Phenyl-Vinyl-POSS) was synthesized via the corner capping reaction of incompletely condensed silsesquioxane, [(C6H5)7Si7O9(OH)3], with trichlorovinylsilane. The chemical structure of Phenyl-Vinyl-POSS was characterized by FT-IR, 1H-NMR, mass spectrometry and elemental analysis. Phenyl-Vinyl-POSS/ATC silicone rubber organic-inorganic hybrid materials were prepared by hydrosilylation between Phenyl-Vinyl-POSS and addition-type curable (ATC) silicone rubber with karstedt platinum catalyst. These hybrid materials were characterized through SEM, IR, XRD, TGA, DSC and tensile test. The results indicate that Phenyl-Vinyl-POSS is successfully incorporated into silicone rubber matrix by chemical bonding. Both mechanical properties and thermal properties of Phenyl-Vinyl-POSS/ATC silicone rubber hybrid materials have been improved compared to neat silicone rubber. The hardness of Phenyl-Vinyl-POSS/ATC silicone rubber hybrid materials increases from 18A to 28A, tensile strength increases from 0.2 MPa to 0.64 MPa, and the elongation at break increases from 14.12% to 184.39% when Phenyl-Vinyl-POSS content is up to 10 wt%. Meanwhile, temperature with 5% decomposition of modified ATC silicone rubber increases from 344.1°C to 360.4°C.