Effects of high-pressure hydrogen exposure on filler-elastomer adhesion

MA Wilson and IS Winter and AL Frischknecht, INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HYDROGEN ENERGY, 144, 19-29 (2025).

DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2025.05.084

Elastomers are known to gain enhanced mechanical properties through compounding with nanosized filler particles such as silica or carbon black. Filler dispersion and filler-polymer interfacial strength are key contributing factors to this improvement. The interfacial strength is critical to part lifetime in pressurized gas sealing applications such as O-rings, where weak binding between the filler particle and polymer matrix can lead to internal void structures. With the aim to build a fundamental understanding of precursors to pressurized hydrogen-induced failure in elastomers, we use all-atom molecular dynamics simulations to study the impact of hydrogen oversaturation on filler-polymer interaction strength. We systematically study the interface between a commonly used elastomer, ethylene-propylene-diene monomer (EPDM) and silica by varying gas concentration, crosslink density, and surface chemistry. Our simulations predict that decompression leads to a localization of excess gas near the interface. We demonstrate that this localized gas can weaken interfacial adhesion and quantify the interaction using thermodynamic approaches.

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