title: Study of tetrapodal ZnO-PDMS composites: a comparison of fillers shapes in stiffness and hydrophobicity improvements.
abstract: ZnO particles of different size and structures were used as fillers to modify the silicone rubber, in order to reveal the effect of the filler shape in the polymer composites. Tetrapodal shaped microparticles, short microfibers/whiskers, and nanosized spherical particles from ZnO have been used as fillers to fabricate the different ZnO-Silicone composites. The detailed microstructures of the fillers as well as synthesized composites using scanning electron microscopy have been presented here. The tensile elastic modulus and water contact angle, which are important parameters for bio-mimetic applications, of fabricated composites with different fillers have been measured and compared. Among all three types of fillers, tetrapodal shaped ZnO microparticles showed the best performance in terms of increase in hydrophobicity of material cross-section as well as the stiffness of the composites. It has been demonstrated that the tetrapodal shaped microparticles gain their advantage due to the special shape, which avoids agglomeration problems as in the case for nanoparticles, and the difficulty of achieving truly random distribution for whisker fillers.
authors.affiliation: Functional Nanomaterials, Institute for Materials Science, Christian-Albrechts University of Kiel, Kiel, Germany.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.affiliation: Synthesis and Real Structures, Institute for Materials Science, Christian-Albrechts University of Kiel, Kiel, Germany.
authors.forename: Mao
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.affiliation: Functional Nanomaterials, Institute for Materials Science, Christian-Albrechts University of Kiel, Kiel, Germany.
authors.forename: Sören
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kaps
authors.affiliation: Functional Nanomaterials, Institute for Materials Science, Christian-Albrechts University of Kiel, Kiel, Germany.
authors.forename: Xinwei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Functional Nanomaterials, Institute for Materials Science, Christian-Albrechts University of Kiel, Kiel, Germany.
authors.forename: Iris
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Hölken
authors.affiliation: Functional Nanomaterials, Institute for Materials Science, Christian-Albrechts University of Kiel, Kiel, Germany.
authors.forename: Kristin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mess
authors.affiliation: Functional Nanomaterials, Institute for Materials Science, Christian-Albrechts University of Kiel, Kiel, Germany.
authors.forename: Rainer
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Adelung
authors.affiliation: Functional Nanomaterials, Institute for Materials Science, Christian-Albrechts University of Kiel, Kiel, Germany.
authors.forename: Yogendra Kumar
authors.initials: YK
authors.lastname: Mishra
mesh_terms: D003188:Composite Resins / Q000737:chemistry*; D004129:Dimethylpolysiloxanes / Q000737:chemistry*; D055119:Elastic Modulus; D057927:Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions; D008422:Materials Testing; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D010316:Particle Size; D012825:Silicon / Q000737:chemistry*; D013499:Surface Properties; D013718:Tensile Strength; D015034:Zinc Oxide / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D003188:Composite Resins; D004129:Dimethylpolysiloxanes; C013830:baysilon; D015034:Zinc Oxide; D012825:Silicon