Can anyone confirm or deny the following?


http://uk.ask.com/wiki/Cyberskin

CyberSkin is the brand-name of a soft elastomer material that is intended to emulate the feel of human skin. It is made by the adult toy manufacturer Topco Sales. The company states that the technology behind CyberSkin is a "new Aerospace 601 computerized injection molding machine, originally designed by NASA engineers..."

Similar materials are available under other brand names, such as Ultraskin, Eroskin, Softskin, SoftTouch, Cyber Jel-lee, New supersoft, Futurotic and UR3 (Ultra realistic 3.0). All are soft and stretchy, with a velvety texture that is caused by talcs and cornstarches used to prevent the material from becoming unpleasantly sticky.

The materials, from the group of thermoplastic elastomers, are mixtures of polyvinyl chloride and silicone. As such, they are attacked by oil, petroleum, and silicone oils, therefore only water-based lubricants can be used without causing damage.


...so if i put polyvinyl chloride and silicone in a container and leave it to cure i will have my own cyberskin?

Er, no.
Polyvinylchloride is the polymer formed by polymerisation of vinylchloride (H2C=CHCl) to form poly-vinylchloride (unit "cell" (HClC-CH2)n)
Thus you would need to polymerise the vinylchloride with the silicone as a plasticiser (most probably) or else you would need to co-polymerise the two compounds.
I say this since unplasticised PVC (UPVC) is a rigid(ish) plastic that makes door and window frames.
Conversely "normal" plasticised PVC is much more flexible since the polymer chains are held apart by the interstitial plasticiser and the polymer molecules can thus move past each other producing the flexibility needed for clothing etc.
(If you want a simple mental picture you can imagine the plasticiser as being like ball-bearings trapped between the polymer chains.)

Thus without knowing either the production method (catalysts etc) or the empirical formula for "cyberskin" I suspect that the material will not be easily duplicated and manufacturers tend to guard such secrets carefully.
Polymer chemists to the rescue?

and i just checked that the state of PVC is solid at temperatures below 100°C to 260°C.... damn it. I am thinking a silicone gel will react negatively to a liquid at that temperature. Worse still is, according to Wikipedia, at room temperature vinyl chloride is a carcinogenic and poisonous gas.

I guess the secret recipe for cyberskin is a well hidden as Colonel Sanders's.

you can tell that's a wikipedea entry cause as normal it's almost completely wrong

I see they listed silicone as a thermo plastic which means that it melts when it gets hot,

don't believe everything you read

if we're talking about vinyl chloride, then its right, it is a highly dangerous compound which amateurs should not fuck around with and there is scientific reports which corroborate this.

Not to worry. If any of you guys want to club in with me to raise $100 000 maybe we can get hold of a second hand mass spectrometer and crack the empirical formula.

No, the Wikipedia entry is correct. One of it's external references is to the Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry of the CDC.



Um, I'm not sure where you're seeing that in Wikipedia, because I can't find anywhere in their entry of silicone that is calls it a thermoplastic. Although there are some silicone thermoplastics out there.



True, but don't automatically dismiss Wikipedia as not reliable. Check the references. Ever since some of the scandals of the past, Wikipedia has been good about ensuring proper referencing and citations. Just because some teachers all decided that Wikipedia is junk (because they didn't like the fact that it saved students from having to spend hours upon hours in a library when they could study at home easier), don't believe them. One of my favorite books: Lies My Teacher Told Me.

my bad,

I saw wiki in the link above & thought that was where the above text was copied from & it lists silicone as a thermoplastic there, can you give me an example of silicone as a thermo plastic because I use the stuff to seal exhaust manifold joints & you wouldn't be able to do that if it was, & I also have some cookware made out of it

I know plenty about the lies teachers tell, they told me plenty, but I have seen for myself lots of inacuracies in wikipedea entries

they can be a good sorurce for a starting point to base a study but should not be relied upon to be completely accurate

Here's one http://www.dsm.com/en_US/html/dbm/products_pursil.htm

rubb3rl0v3r

there are other post about this stuff.
Let me tell you 1st you have to heat this stuff. it is toxic, and its dangeress over 475.
best to stay under 375. work out side of in a very well ventalated room. PVC is extreemly toxic when burnt. so if you are going to play with this shit be carfull.

Why not try something like this page shows?

http://www.sextoyscientist.com

What exactly is 'elastomer oil gel'?

Where would you buy it?

Sextoyscientist has a video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJXhTicIV2E

And under comments the author says where to get the materials:

One memberseveral years ago used work in a lab with one, and he posted some findings from toy materials. He quit posting after he kept getting nasty lawyer-grams from manufacturers for asking too many questions. The biggest was why did he see an "estrogen like peak" common in phalate samples in a popular big name toy that claimed it did not have them. He wasn't accusative, just "hmmm, care to help me out here as to what other mechanisms might cause this". Understandably they want to monitor rumors, especially if its all natural as claimed, but the reaction was a bit heavy by most standards. Maybe durring the formation process an estrogen like compound is being formed completely unknown to the manufacturer, who probably did not take all (if any) of their samples in for mass spectrometer analysis. It might have been the case of the manufacturer wanting to remain ignorant since to know would open them up to future liability. Curious as how many toys now have a phalate free notice. Just a cautionary tale from the archive ...

awesome. I now have the mental image of a guy in a white coat with male masturbators stuffed into the pockets.

I'm guessing he kept his toys at home and used the 'try me' sample blobs you see protruding from the boxes before you open them.

Try this store http://www.polytek.com/cart/index.php?t ... ory_id=210