Mechanical and swelling properties of PDMS interpenetrating polymer networks

Poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) interpenetrating networks (IPNs) of a large and a small molar mass PDMS were prepared. Six series of IPNs were obtained by first tetra-functionally end-linking long vinyl-terminated PDMS neat or in a 50 per cent solution with unreactive PDMS chains. These networks were then dried and swollen with short reactive telechelic PDMS that were subsequently end-linked. We found that the correlation between modulus (E) and equilibrium swelling (Q) in toluene of the PDMS IPNs obeys a scaling relation identical to that of normal uni-modal PDMS networks. The results of the toughness of the networks represented by the energy required to rupture them were analyzed in terms of a recent model by Okumura (Europhysics Letters 67(3), 470, 2004). A modified version of this model that assumes each component of the double network to be subjected to an equal stress gives a good representation of the data.