Thermal and Bonding Properties of Nano Size Carbon Black Filled PDMS

We consider Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) as a prospective structural material candidate for a Micro Fuel Cell. The introduction of such a polymer as structural material will reduce the mass and the size of the micro fuel cell and therefore optimize the current micro fuel cell models. In this perspective, our work focuses on the tailorability and optimization of thermal, mechanical bonding properties of PDMS with nano size carbon black particles as filler (PDMS-CB). The wt% of the filler is varied from 10% to 25%. The mechanical property is characterized by testing the bond strength of the bond between pure PDMS and PDMS-CB composite. The bond between pure PDMS and 10% carbon black filled PDMS broke at 0.72 MPa. The bond has become very strong for other samples with higher wt% (> 10%). In this case the bond did not break but the break occurred on the pure PDMS side. The Thermal Gravimetric Analysis (TGA) study has shown good thermal stability of the composite up to 500 degrees C.