Effects of Pollutions and Environmental Factors on the Performance of Hydrophobic Transference of Silicone Rubber

Aiming at the problem that silicone rubber (SIR) is used in different environmental areas in China, present paper reports the hydrophobicity transference of SIR affected by pollutions and environmental factors. Kieselguhr and kaolin were used as artificial pollutions, and then the hydrophobicity of SIR was found to be affected by the content of soluble salts, and non-soluble pollutions. According to Brunauer, Emmett and Teller (BET) method, the ability of requiring hydrophobicity of pollution was found to be related to BET surface. The BET surface of kaolin is found to differ from that of kieselguhr, which leads to a different hydrophobicity transference of SIR. In addition, the low pressure, low temperature and high humidity were considered as factors to study the change of hydrophobicity compared with the normally indoor condition. Results show that the effects of low temperature and high humidity are severe, to which more attention should be paid if the SIR is used in these environments