[SimoBOC]

Has anyone worked with Rapid Prototyping, in the specific with Objet photolitography plotters, and it's materials FullCure720 and VeroBlue?

I'm looking for a way to solve them out of a platinum cured two component silicone block.
Does anybody know about anything?

In the attachment the technical datasheet for the FullCure720 (could find nothing for VeroBlue...).

Thanks everyone for your help and support.

[P]

The data sheet suggests that it is "Cured polymeric material" thus it might be hard to dissolve due to it's really high molecular weight.  What solvents have you tried? Have you contacted the suppliers to ask them what they might reccomend to get it into solution? Can you find out what polymer it is exactly?

Is it a resist? Can you induce scission in the bonds somehow with radiation to break it up and make it more soluble?

Sorry for the multiple questions, I'm just trying to find out more about what it is you are trying to do exactly before I can be of any use. Why do you need to recover it?

Regards,

P.

[SimoBOC]

For sure it is hard to dissolve: I tried generic organic solvent (toluene, decane, isopropanol, ethyl acetate and acetone) which I had in our lab, and chloroform and dichloromethane. None of them worked.

Contacting the suppliers didn't help: they don't know, or don't want to say out, any information about the chemistry of their product. And they claimed there is no solvent for it.

To find out the detailed composition of the polymer an XPS might be worth it. Might it?
However could it really help?

I didn't try any radiation technique on it; but I did try sonication, and it also didn't help.

The idea behind solving it is the following:
we have a very complex domain (geometry-wise) where we want to have water, surrounded by a silicone block. We are using rapid prototyping techniques to reproduce that, and researching for a way to solve the product so to free its space to water.

Thanks a lot for your help.
And Great Forum.

S.

[P]

OK.  The best (and most readily available) solvent for heavy polymers we found was THF. It may well be that it is just too cross linked to dissolve.  Try leaving it THF for about a week with occasional agitation, physical or sonic.  If it doesn't dissolve by then it probably wont.

Without knowing the chemical structure of the polymer I can't say if UV light doses will cause the MW to drop by causing scission or not.   Might be worth a try though?  Leave a sample of it under UV for an afternoon or or a day or two and then try dissolving it in THF.   See if that works.  If not then sorry to have wasted your time, but it sounds like anything might be worth a try if you have no idea What the polymer actually is.  If you physically scratch and chip the polymer up a bit then that might help too by increasing the surface area exposed to the solvent.

Good luck with it anyway  - let us know how you get on.

[blitzzz]

Hi guys. Sorry to *Ignore me, I am impatient* this old topic. I'm also currently looking for solvents to dissolve Fullcure 720 and also the vero series materials. Previously i was using sodium hydroxide (i am not a chemist so i just trialed and error) with heating at 70 degree celcius for 4 days on fullcure 720 and i'm sure it sort of disintegrated the material. However, i'm not actually sure if it has completely dissolved as i still see bits and pieces of the material lying around the beaker. So SimoBOC, any luck so far on the solvents? Any other suggestions on the solvents to use? meanwhile i'm going to try out the THF suggested by P. Will update my results soon.

[P]

I'd be interested to know if it works.  As I said - It looks as though it may just be too cross-linked to be able to get it into solution though. You might need to soak it in THF for some time with regular agitation and scoring of the polymer, maybe in an ultrasonic bath as well. However - if the degree of cross-linking is too high then it won't dissolve whatever you throw at it. 

Again - it depends on why you are trying to get it into solution and what quantities, but you might find that if all else fails, then irradiation of a small sample with UV may break some of the cross-linking allowing it to be dissolved.  Very difficault to comment without knowing the polymer structure and degree of X-linking.

Good luck.

[lizydude]

You need to find out the polymer's exact characteristics and quality to let you know some better solution to melt it. It might be better if you can contact your supplier and ask about it.

[johngaltrules]

Has anyone worked with Rapid Prototyping, in the specific with Objet photolitography plotters, and it's materials FullCure720 and VeroBlue?

I'm looking for a way to solve them out of a platinum cured two component silicone block.
Does anybody know about anything?

In the attachment the technical datasheet for the FullCure720 (could find nothing for VeroBlue...).

Thanks everyone for your help and support.

I wish that I knew the answer.  Have you tried <a href="http://www.metrorp.com">tolulene</a> ?