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Title: A multiple length scale description of the mechanism of elastomer stretching

Journal Article · · RSC Advances
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1039/c6ra22802j· OSTI ID:1328263
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [6]
  1. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Chemical and Engineering Materials Division
  2. Technical Univ. of Denmark, Lyngby (Denmark). Danish Polymer Centre, Dept. of Chemical Engineering
  3. Univ. of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW (Australia). School of Materials Science and Engineering; European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), Grenoble (France)
  4. European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), Grenoble (France)
  5. Roskilde Univ., Roskilde (Denmark). Dept. of Sciences, Glass and Time
  6. Technical Univ. of Denmark, Lyngby (Denmark). Dept. of Physics, Neutrons and X-rays for Materials Physics
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Conventionally, the stretching of rubber is modeled exclusively by rotations of segments of the embedded polymer chains; i.e. changes in entropy. However models have not been tested on all relevant length scales due to a lack of appropriate probes. Here we present a universal X-ray based method for providing data on the structure of rubbers in the 2–50 Å range. First results relate to the elongation of a silicone rubber. We identify several non-entropic contributions to the free energy and describe the associated structural changes. By far the largest contribution comes from structural changes within the individual monomers, but among the contributions is also an elastic strain, acting between chains, which is 3–4 orders of magnitude smaller than the macroscopic strain, and of the opposite sign, i.e. extension of polymer chains in the direction perpendicular to the stretch. We find this may be due to trapped entanglements relaxing to positions close to the covalent crosslinks.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Spallation Neutron Source (SNS)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); Danish National Research Foundation; Danish Natural Science Research Council
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
1328263
Journal Information:
RSC Advances, Vol. 6, Issue 98; ISSN 2046-2069
Publisher:
Royal Society of ChemistryCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 7 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (3)

Optimization Techniques for Improving the Performance of Silicone-Based Dielectric Elastomers journal November 2017
Molecular Strategies for Improved Dielectric Elastomer Electrical Breakdown Strengths journal July 2018
Anisotropic and heterogeneous dynamics in stretched elastomer nanocomposites journal January 2019

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