Graphenes acting as antioxidants for fluorosilicone rubber to improve its thermal oxidative stability

As an essential elastomer used in edge technologies, fluorosilicone rubber (FSR) suffers serious oxidative aging problem when serving at high temperature. This paper focused on the antioxidant properties of graphene for FSR and the corresponding mechanism. In this study, a series of graphene/FSR composites were prepared. The thermal-oxidative stability of the graphene/FSR cured compound were investigated via thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), isothermal degradation test at 280, 320 and 350°C, and thermal aging test at 230°C for 72 h. The results showed the FSR incorporating of 0.5 wt% of graphene could maintain more than 90% of tensile strength after aging at 230°C for 72 h. The antioxidant mechanism of graphene was further investigated by electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR). It was shown that graphene has powerful radical scavenging activity and inhibited the oxidation scission of the side groups, which might be prime reason for the antioxidant properties of graphene.