Modulation of dielectric and viscoelastic features of silicone rubber (SR) by nano-hydroxylapatite (n-HA) embedding

Abstract

We report the modulation of dielectric and dynamic mechanical features of silicone rubber (SR), the extensively employed biocompatible elastomer, by embedding it with nano-hydroxylapatite (n-HA) particles. The n-HA particles were initially synthesised and subsequently introduced into SR quantitatively by two roll milling and compression moulding. The n-HA loading has been found to alter the thermal stability, dielectric properties such as dielectric constant, dissipation factor, volume resistivity and conductivity of virgin SR. The embedded systems exhibited significant improvement in room temperature storage modulus compared to the unfilled systems. The SR/n-HA systems, with simultaneous modulation of dielectric and visco-elastic characteristics, have been proposed for the fabrication of blood pumps in a better way than the current practice with SR alone.