• Joubert, Aurélie
• Fiani, Emmanuel
• Venditti, Danielle
• Durecu, Sylvain
• Bihan, Olivier Le
• Coq, Laurence Le
• Tran, Dinh Trinh
• Meunier, Thierry

Abstract

This study aimed to characterize a polymer waste, originating from polyorganosiloxane polymerization processes, prior its end-of-life treatment in order to identify and quantify the possibly contained nano-fillers. The polymer waste was first characterized in terms of its physical–chemical properties by combining different approaches and analytic techniques such as standard ultimate and elemental analysis or techniques like infrared spectroscopy or thermogravimetric analysis coupled with gas chromatography and mass spectroscopy to define the polymer waste molecular structure. The second step was devoted to identify and characterize the nano-fillers contained in the polymer waste, if any, in terms of particle size distribution, morphology and composition. Due to the thermal degradability of the polymer waste above 50 °C, the cryo-ultramicrotomy and the transmission electron microscopy techniques were used. Polydimethylsiloxane was identified as the core polymer unit, and the presence of the suspected SiO2 nano-fillers was confirmed, with three different morphologies detected: elongated and hexagonal, both found in the particle size range of 100–500 nm in diameter; and spherical, present in the population of particles ≤100 nm in diameter. In particular, a relatively large amount of K (2.81 wt%) was also identified in the waste. The mass content of SiO2 nano-fillers in the polymer waste was estimated to 24.4 wt%.

Topics

• morphology
• polymer
• transmission electron microscopy
• thermogravimetry
• gas chromatography
• molecular structure
• infrared spectroscopy
• elemental analysis