Macromolecular and mechanical changes in aged silicones

• Three room temperature-vulcanized rubbers were thermally aged under air at 250 °C or submitted to aminolysis at room temperature. • Ageing was followed by uniaxial tensile testing, sol gel measurements in toluene, and time domain double quantum NMR characterization. • Mechanical tests were exploited to identify the parameters of the ogden model so as to describe the hyperelastic behavior of PDMS. • A multiscale correlation between the results of each technique was proposed to highlight the understanding of multiscale analysis in rubber ageing. Three room temperature-vulcanized PDMS rubbers were thermally aged under air at 250 °C or submitted to aminolysis at room temperature. Ageing was followed by uniaxial tensile testing, sol gel measurements in toluene, and Time Domain Double Quantum NMR characterization. Mechanical tests were exploited to identify the parameters of the Ogden model so as to describe the hyperelastic behavior of PDMS. Sol gel and Double Quantum NMR were used to track and quantify macromolecular changes within the samples. A multiscale correlation between the results of each technique was proposed to highlight the understanding of multiscale analysis in rubber ageing.