Thermoelasticity and Stress Induced Crystallization of EPDM Elastomers

Abstract

Abstract The thermoelastic behavior of various EPDM rubbers has been investigated by performing stress-temperature measurements at different stretching ratios in order to determine their thermodynamic properties and the occurrence of stress induced crystallization. A broad range of terpolymer compositions was investigated and the regularity of monomer sequence distribution was also taken into account. It has been found that statistical terpolymers, like the commercial ones, are generally amorphous and hardly crystallize under stretching for propylene contents higher than 40% by weight. Below this level it is possible to obtain, in a narrow composition range, amorphous polymers that can crystallize under stretching, provided that their monomer sequence distribution is regular enough. The influence of this microstructural parameter has been studied by testing a 3/1 ethylene/propylene model copolymer, obtained by hydrogenation of a sample of poly-3-methyloctenamer. Studying the influence of stretching ratio on crystallization temperature of standard EPDM rubbers, it has been noticed that crystallization occurs at low elongation, which might be related to the presence of “nuclei” in the undeformed state.