The Temperature Shift of the Second Order Transition of Natural Rubber by Crosslinking

Abstract

Abstract The present article reports on dynamic mechanical and infrared spectroscopic tests of natural rubber crosslinked by sulfur, peroxide or high energy radiation. The effect of these vulcanization methods upon the rate of crosslinking, the position of the second order transition temperature and the double bond structure is discussed. Whereas the temperature displacement of the transition range from the second order transition phase to the rubber elastic state during crosslinking by high energy radiation or by peroxide arises from the increasing hindrance of chain movement by the crosslinks, the intramolecular addition of sulfur predominantly is responsible for the much greater temperature displacement—related to the same crosslink density—during sulfur vulcanization. The change of the double bonds which proceeds in the sulfur vulcanization at a much faster rate than in the crosslinking by irradiation also can be considered as indication of intramolecular rings being formed along the chain during sulfur vulcanization. Vulcanization by sulfur and crosslinking by irradiation appear, principally, to be based on the same mechanism. The influence of oxidation on the mechanical properties of the vulcanizates is studied in natural rubber irradiated in an oxygen atmosphere. The two damping maxima observed at the dynamic mechanical test can be ascribed, with the aid of infrared spectroscopy, to the influence of crosslinks and oxidation products on the chain mobility.