In the key links of modern industry, a material stands out with its unique properties. It is fluorosilicone oil. This silicone oil product, with the side groups of methyl silicone oil replaced by fluorine-containing groups such as trifluoropropyl, combines the advantages of organic silicon and organic fluorine, showing excellent weather resistance, high and low temperature resistance, chemical stability, and water and oil repellency. It has indispensable important applications in many fields.

I. Conventional Applications: A "Versatile Player" in Multiple Scenarios

1. Lubrication Field

Fluorosilicone oil can form a molecular assembly film with an outer chemical composition of -CF3 and high water and oil repellency on the substrate surface through chemical adsorption, which can greatly reduce the friction coefficient of the substrate and has good wear resistance under low load. It has high thermal stability, low volatility, oxidation resistance, oil resistance, solvent resistance, chemical reagent resistance, and a wide working temperature range, and can be used for a long time in most solvent and chemical environments. In some harsh fields with solvent resistance and corrosion resistance, the fluorosilicone grease prepared with fluorosilicone oil as the base oil can replace fluorine grease in some occasions and has a lower price than fluorine grease, providing an economical and efficient solution for the lubrication of related equipment.

2. Defoaming Application

Fluorosilicone oil is neither soluble in water nor in general oil, so it is often used as an oil defoamer and is widely used in petroleum, textile, coating and ink industry, food processing and fermentation industry, and medical fields. Hydroxyl-terminated fluorosilicone oil is more suitable for defoaming in some water systems because it contains hydrophilic terminal hydroxyl groups, providing precise material selection for defoaming in different systems, effectively ensuring the stability of the production process and product quality.

3. Surface Treatment Agent

In the surface treatment of fabrics, leather, paper and other materials, fluorosilicone oil is often used for waterproof and soil-resistant finishing, giving these materials oil repellency and solvent repellency. In addition, it can also be used for filler surface treatment to improve the compatibility between filler and substrate, enhance the overall performance of composite materials, and expand the application range and service life of materials.

4. Oil-Resistant Rubber Field

Poly(methyl trifluoropropyl sil氧ane) (PTFPMS) type fluorosilicone rubber is the earliest developed, applied, and largest used fluorosilicone oil-resistant rubber. It has unparalleled comprehensive properties compared with other rubbers such as silicone rubber, fluororubber, and nitrile rubber, and can work for a long time in the temperature range of -60 - 200℃, with mechanical properties similar to silicone rubber. However, PTFPMS fluorosilicone rubber is not suitable for polar solvents or highly corrosive fluids. With the development of technology, although the processing technology of fluorosilicone high-temperature mixtures is relatively complex, liquid fluorosilicone rubber is gradually showing a trend of replacing mixtures. Generally speaking, when the molar number of fluorine-containing chain segments reaches 10%, oil resistance begins to appear; when the molar number of fluorine-containing chain segments reaches more than 30%, good oil resistance can be achieved.

II. Usage Suggestions: Key Guidelines for Optimizing Performance

When using fluorosilicone oil, since most of the fluorosilicone oil on the market is perfluorosilicone oil with a relatively high price, and its polarity is large, it is incompatible with traditional vinyl silicone oil. In addition-type silicone rubber, if perfluorosilicone oil is directly added, the mixture will stratify after standing, and the mechanical properties may become worse after curing and crosslinking, and the fluorine groups cannot be uniformly distributed in the entire system, resulting in a significant reduction in modified properties. Therefore, it is recommended to use vinyl-terminated low fluorine content fluorosilicone oil instead of traditional vinyl silicone oil as the base material to prepare addition-type rubber with soil resistance, polarity, non-polarity solvent resistance, and oil resistance. For condensation-type rubber, it is recommended to use hydroxyl-terminated low fluorine content fluorosilicone oil instead of traditional 107 silicone rubber as the base material to prepare industrial rubber with corresponding properties. For example, in traditional liquid silicone rubber, instead of modifying by adding 5%wt of perfluorosilicone oil, use 5%wt of vinyl fluorosilicone oil as the base material to ensure that the mechanical properties do not deteriorate, and the fluorine groups are uniformly distributed in the entire system after curing and crosslinking, obtaining the expected modified properties. In the fields of lubrication, demolding, and thermal conductive silicone grease, the use of perfluorosilicone oil alone, due to its strong polarity and poor wettability, has poor results. Using perfluorosilicone oil as an additive also has compatibility problems with methyl silicone oil. Using low fluorine content silicone oil instead of methyl silicone oil can effectively avoid these problems and give full play to the advantages of fluorosilicone oil. Fluorosilicone oil, with its unique properties and wide applications, plays an increasingly important role in the modern industrial system. With the continuous progress of technology and the continuous expansion of application fields, fluorosilicone oil is expected to bring innovative solutions to more industries and promote the development of related industries to a new height.