Silica-reinforced silicones are widely used for medical and marine applications, despite their poor anti-biofouling behavior. We have shown that PEO-silane amphiphiles can serve as effective surface modifying additives (SMAs) that, upon blended with an RTV silicone, afford surfaces which undergo rapid and substantial restructuring of PEO segments to the aqueous interface. As a result, these amphiphilic silicones demonstrate high resistance to proteins, bacteria and marine organisms. These previously studied SMAs were of a linear architecture and comprised of comprised of a short siloxane tether of a crosslinkable group, siloxane tether and PEO segment: α-(EtO)3Si-(CH2)2-oligodimethylsiloxanem-block-(OCH2CH2)8-OCH3. In this work, the level of reinforcing silica was systematically increased and the impact on water-driven wettability as well as on rheology and mechanical properties were evaluated. Moreover, the structure of the SMA was also varied to determine the impact of architecture (e.g. diblock, triblock and star), siloxane tether length and PEO segment content.

Silica-reinforced amphiphilic silicones for antifouling applications

256th National Meeting (2018)

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