Publications Details

Stress Assisted Degradation of Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) with Gold and Sapphire at Room Temperature

Pham, Minh; Dugger, Michael; Argibay, Nicolas; Nation, Brendan; Dickens, Sara

Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is a great material to use in electronics since it is chemically stable over a wide range of temperature, hydrophobic, and doesn't swell in the presence of moisture. However, studies have shown that this material can degrade at room temperature, and even a small amount of it on electrical contacts can form an electrically insulating film. Under tribological conditions it can degrade even at room temperature, leading to an investigation to determine the factors that play into this degradation.