Status and prospects of medical grade silicone rubber industry

Organosilicone compounds and various organosilicone composites made from it have a wide variety of applications, ranging from machinery and agricultural products to cosmetics and daily necessities, and can be seen everywhere in life.

Status and prospects of medical silicone rubber industry

In the medical field, silicone rubber, as a medical polymer material, is widely used in the field of medical devices due to its good electrical conductivity, tensile strength, long life and thermal stability, and has been received by professionals in the medical field. Using the medical characteristics of silicone rubber can solve many medical problems and allow patients to obtain satisfactory results. And its use as a medical material for rubber has high technical content, low cost, high added value, and considerable economic benefits.

After the 1980s, silicone products around the world developed rapidly at a rate of 20% per year. At present, the global silicone market has reached 8-10 billion US dollars. Among them, silicone rubber accounts for about 60% of the market share. Many large companies regard medical silicone rubber as their main development target. It is reported that the medical grade silicone market size is expected to reach US $ 7.23 billion in 2021.

Application of silicone rubber materials in medical devices

1. Medical catheter

Medical catheters are materials that require high purity and high cleanliness, so peroxide vulcanized silicone rubber is increasingly replaced by addition / platinum vulcanized silicone rubber. Generally, platinum-catalyzed silicone rubber is supplied in two-component form before use. When the two components are mixed, the platinum-catalyzed silicone rubber can be used for a short time, so this material usually needs to be extruded and vulcanized within a few hours after mixing. In recent years, on the basis of optimizing the key performance of platinum-catalyzed silicone rubber products, another liquid injection molding (LIM) silicone rubber with higher production quality and higher cost performance has been developed.

This silicone rubber can be molded by injection molding machine for thermosetting materials at high temperature. Compared with the extrusion molding process, the compression molding process can produce products with complex shapes and precise dimensions.

2. Antibacterial silicone rubber

At present, antibacterial additives used in materials include: silver ion compounds, chitosan, titanium dioxide, diphenyl ether biocides, coagulants, antibiotics, etc. Antibacterial silicone rubber, which uses silver ions as the antibacterial body, adds silver ions with antibacterial ability to the polymer network of silicone rubber, and plays a sterilizing role when the material comes into contact with bacteria, thereby improving the silicone rubber in medical applications Security at times.

3. Medical electrode plate

The most basic material of the medical electrode plate is a silicone rubber substrate that can meet the requirements of medical materials and actual use and conductive fillers that make it have good electrical conductivity. If it is combined with other auxiliary components, its performance can be better. The conductive filler is the main substance that makes the insulating rubber conductive. Among the many conductive materials, carbon black is the earliest used conductive material, among which BX carbon black is more famous. It is now generally believed that "electron tunneling", that is, tunneling, is the principle of conduction. The applied voltage creates an electric field between adjacent carbon black particles separated by a thin layer of polymer. Because the electrons can pass through. The current generated depends on the path that the electrons travel between the two conductive particles.

The role of conductive filler in conductive rubber is very indispensable, so the characteristics of conductive filler and its content in rubber, the molecular weight of rubber, the degree of cross linking and other fillers, operating process conditions, etc. on the final conductivity all have an impact.

The filling amount of the conductive filler has a decisive effect on the conductivity of the rubber, and the conductivity of the silicone rubber mixed with carbon black depends on the amount of the filler added.

Through a series of experiments, it was proved that the shear strength of the conductive silicone rubber material depends on the ratio of carbon black, the shear strength and the viscosity of the polymer. The processing performance, viscosity, curing and other properties of conductive silicone rubber can be adjusted according to user needs within a certain range.

The application advantages of silicone in the medical field doomed the necessity of silicone demand. In the market, demand determines the market. From the perspective of demand development, the application of silicone in the medical industry will become more and more extensive.