Blends of Silicone Rubber and Liquid Crystalline Polymer

Blends of silicone rubber (VMQ) and liquid crystalline polymer (LCP) were prepared by the melt mixing technique. Mechanical, XRD, thermal and dynamic mechanical investigations are reported for the pure silicone rubber and blends. The mechanical properties, viz. the tensile strength, tear strength and elongation at break, of the silicone rubber decreased with the addition of LCP. The SEM study on the tensile fractured surface of the blends revealed that they had a two phase structure, and that the failure was mainly due to fiber pull out, which suggests that the VMQ and LCP are incompatible in all of the proportions examined in this study. However, the FTIR study shows that there was a partial interaction between the VMQ and LCP, but which may not be sufficient to grip the fibrils under the applied load. In the XRD analysis, it was observed that the crystalline structure of the silicone rubber deteriorated in the presence of LCP. The DMA study suggested that the storage modulus of the silicone rubber was improved with the addition of LCP, due to the high modulus of the LCP phase. The thermal stability of the silicone rubber was greatly reduced by the addition of LCP, due to the latter having a thermal stability lower than that of silicone rubber.