Title:

 Leveraging Silicone Elastomer Curing to Create Stronger Soft Devices

Abstract:

Silicone elastomers offer a wide range of mechanical and chemical properties. Specifically, their inherent compliance has facilitated significant progress in the field of soft robotics over the past decade. Platinum-catalysed elastomers are used in the fabrication of most soft robotic components due to their commercial availability and liquid-like properties prior to curing.
However, understanding the curing duration at a given temperature for these elastomers often relies on empirical trends. Curing parameters are typically determined through trial-and-error testing, which limits the findings to specific geometries and curing conditions. I will present a modelling framework that provides a new understanding of the temperature-dependent curing of platinum-catalysed elastomers. The model, which builds on thermo-rheological experiments, explains how time and temperature affect the viscoelastic behaviour of elastomers and reveals that the curing behaviour exhibits self-similarity, characterised by a dimensionless reaction coordinate that indicates the extent of curing. I then leverage this understanding of curing behaviour to study the adhesion strength between elastomer layers by demonstrating the utility of the reaction coordinate to pinpoint failure regimes as a function of curing time and temperature. Adhesion between elastomeric components represents a longstanding problem in the field of soft robotics, and improving adhesion will enable new fabrication methodologies.
Overall, this work aims to understand and leverage the curing behaviour of elastomers as a function of time and temperature to improve elastomer processing and device durability.

Zoom:

Link: https://hawaii.zoom.us/j/4145948852?omn=86322994542
ID: 414 594 8852
Passcode: CoE