Some Novel Systems for Crosslinking Polychloroprene

Abstract

Abstract During the past three decades polychloroprene (CR), one of the earliest synthetic elastomers, has been widely used in many and varied technological applications. The established curing technique generally involves metal oxides as curing agents. The combination of ZnO and MgO with 2-mercaptoimidazoline (NA-22) as an organic accelerator is commonly used. Notwithstanding much work, the essential mechanism of the curing reaction is so complicated that many details remain to be resolved. An effective substitute for NA-22 has become desirable in Japan, mainly because of environmental pollution. Our search for novel organic accelerators has been stimulated by these circumstances and has resulted in the discovery of some promising candidates. This paper is concerned with these new accelerators for the vulcanization of CR and with certain chemicals which stabilize CR vulcanizates cured by them.