Study on reliability of room temperature vulcanization silicone rubber and conductive composite silicone rubber reinforced by silica

Electromagnetic interference (EMI) is considered as a crucial environmental and reliability issue in electronic information industries, especially with the rapid development of information technology. Since electromagnetic signals are prone to be interfered by external electromagnetic radiation, it is urgent to take effective measures to reduce, or ultimately eliminate the electromagnetic interference. Electromagnetic shielding conductive silicone rubber hence attracts great attention based on such demands. In this paper, we report our fundamental studies on conductive polymer composite materials, i.e., adding different conductive filler into polymer to achieve required conductivity. Conductive polymer composite materials have been widely used in many different areas owing to its low cost and uncomplicated processing techniques. In order to achieve better performance, the two main components, silicone rubber and conductive filler, should both exhibit good performance and compatibility. This paper is focused on the room temperature vulcanized (RTV) silicone rubber. The attempt to improve the performance of silicone rubber was based on the experimental efforts on formula design as well as processing improvement. The formula and processing of RTV silicone rubber with required performances was investigated from a series of comparative experiments. 85°C-85% RH aging, 100°C aging, and salt spray testing (SST) were different ways we employed to investigate the reliability of RTV silicone rubber and conductive silicone rubber. Several aspects of service performance were tested and characterized.