Effect of accelerated aging on the viscoelastic properties of a medical grade silicone

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Abstract

The viscoelastic properties of cylinders (diameter 5 mm, height 2.2 ± 0.2 mm) of Nagor silicone elastomer of medium hardness, were investigated before and after the specimens had undergone accelerated aging in saline solution at 70°C for 38, 76 and 114 days (to simulate aging at 37°C, for 1, 2 and 3 years, respectively). All sets of specimens were immersed in physiological saline solution at 37°C during testing and the properties were measured using dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA). A sinusoidal cyclic compression of 40 N ± 5 N was applied over a frequency range, f , of 0.02–25 Hz. Values of the storage, E , and loss, E , moduli were found to depend on f ; the dependence of E or E on the logarithm (base 10) of f was represented by a second-order polynomial. After accelerated aging, the E and E values did not increase significantly (p < 0.05). Furthermore, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed that accelerated aging did not affect the surface morphology of silicone. Attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) showed that accelerated aging had a negligible effect on the surface chemical structures of the materia
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)415
Number of pages423
JournalBio-Medical Materials & Engineering
Volume25
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2015

Keywords

  • Accelerated aging, compression, dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), silicone, viscoelasticity

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