Experimental and Theoretical Study on Mechanical Properties of Porous PDMS

Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is extensively used in clinical flexible electronics, due to its biocompatibility and stability. When it is employed in a stretchable epidermal sensor for long-term monitoring, PDMS must have open pores within it to assure the sweat penetration. In the present paper, we focus on the mechanical properties of porous PDMS with different volume porosities at different temperatures. The emulsion polymerization technique is applied to fabricate porous PDMS. By controlling the ratio of water to PDMS prepolymer, different porosities of PDMS were obtained, and elastic moduli of such porous PDMS were measured in experiment. Results indicate that the elastic modulus increases nonlinearly as its temperature rises from 0 °C to 40 °C (a temperature range frequently encountered in clinical applications). Meanwhile, an asymptotic homogenization method (AHM) is employed to theoretically predict the elastic modulus and Poisson's ratio of porous PDMS, whose reliability is testified by comparing the results with experimentally measured data. Further theoretical discussions on mechanical properties are carried out, and results show that the pore size of porous PDMS has almost no effect on the elastic modulus and Poisson's ratio for certain porosities. Porosity of porous PDMS, however, has significant effect on both of these two mechanical parameters. Two fitted nonlinear formulas are then proposed to estimate the elastic modulus and Poisson's ratio of porous PDMS for any volume porosity less than 50%. All the results in the present paper are essential for mechanical design and optimization of clinical flexible electronics based on porous PDMS.