A quick and accurate method to determine the Poisson's ratio and the coefficient of thermal expansion of PDMS

We present a new and accurate method to determine the Poisson's ratio of PDMS, using thermal expansion and an optical surface profilometer. The Poisson's ratio of Sylgard 184 was found to be ν = 0.4950 ± 0.0010 and for Sylgard 182, ν = 0.4974 ± 0.0006. Furthermore, we found that for both PDMS types, the coefficient of thermal expansion depends approximately linearly on the curing temperature. This method can be used for almost any kind of soft polymer that can be cured from a liquid at elevated temperatures.