Wang, Qihao, Peng, Jiang, Zhou, Liyun, Tang, Tony, Li, Si, Chen, Hongyu, Wang, Haitao, Zheng, Gengfeng, Yang, Xiuhan, and Qian, Linping
Commercial fillers are widely used in the industrial manufacturing of silicone-based sealants such as CaCO 3 filled polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). The surface property of calcium carbonate, which is readily influenced by the adsorbed water and chemical modifiers, results in different rheological performances of the composites. However, it is difficult to characterize the surface due to the multiple contributions from the morphology, functional groups, and pore structure. In this work, the surface property was differentiated by the surface energies using inverse gas chromatography (IGC). The dispersive interaction was determined by n -alkanes (C 7 -C 10), and the specific components were evaluated by cyclohexane, benzene, trichloroethylene, and tetrachloroethylene. The calcium carbonates showed the different dispersive interaction and the varied specific component on the modified surface. It was suggested that the dispersive interaction between calcium carbonate fillers and PDMS impacted the viscosity of the formed composite. [Display omitted] • Similar structure and morphology for the commercial CaCO 3 fillers. • Different DOP absorption of the fillers and varied rheology for the filled PDMS. • IGC was used to study the surface property of the modified CaCO 3. • Varied dispersive and specific components of surface energy for CaCO 3 fillers. • Strong dispersive interaction promotes the interface interaction of the composites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]