New Peroxide Curable Perfluoroelastomer for High Temperature Applications

Perfluoroelastomers are used in hostile environments due to their very high chemical and thermal resistance. Halogen containing perfluoroelastomers are cured by peroxide in presence of a curing agent. Commonly used curing agents, such as triallyl cyanurate and triallyl isocyanurate, show good thermal resistance only up to 220°C, thus restricting material application at higher temperatures. In this work, a new perfluoroelastomer for high temperature applications is presented. The polymer is synthesized with the so-called branching and pseudoliving technology and it is crosslinked with a new curing agent especially designed for high temperature resistance, namely a fluorinated di-olefin. The resulting polymer network exhibits by far improved thermal resistance, retaining its sealing ability and mechanical properties up to 300°C. Besides, the processability and the sealing properties of this di-olefin cured perfluoroelastomer are excellent. Based on this technology, a new peroxide curable perfluoroelastomer for high temperature applications has been obtained and developed at industrial scale. This material is today available from Ausimont S.p.A. with the trade name of “Tecnoflon ® PFR95”.