Effect of accelerated aging on the viscoelastic properties of Elast-Eon™: A polyurethane with soft poly(dimethylsiloxane) and poly(hexamethylene oxide) segments

Abstract The viscoelastic properties of cylinders (diameter 5 mm, height 2.2 ± 0.2 mm) of Elast-Eon™ 3, (a polyurethane with poly(dimethylsiloxane) and poly(hexamethylamine oxide) segments) were investigated before and after the specimens had undergone accelerated aging in saline solution at 70 °C for 38, 76 and 114 days (to simulate aging at 37 °C, for 1, 2 and 3 years, respectively). All sets of specimens were immersed in physiological saline solution at 37 °C during testing and the properties were measured using dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA). A sinusoidal cyclic compression of 40 N ± 5 N was applied over a frequency range, f , of 0.02–100 Hz. Values of the storage, E′ , and loss, E″ , moduli were found to depend on f ; the dependence of E′ or E″ on the logarithm (base 10) of f was represented by a second-order polynomial. After accelerated aging, the E′ and E″ increased significantly ( p