Combined roles of temperature and humidity on cure of a silicone elastomer

A study of the cure kinetics of a one-part water-scavenging silicone elastomer was carried out under conditions of controlled humidity and temperature using rectangular bars subjected to oscillatory torsional shear. Characteristic cure times were obtained from Hsich model fits to the storage modulus evolution. A modified Arrhenius-style cure model is proposed that accounts for both the temperature dependence and for the proportionality between rate of cure and concentration of atmospheric water. The 2-parameter model is fitted to a broad dataset and allows accurate predictions of cure times.