Oxidative Aging of Natural Rubber

Abstract

Abstract In the last few years several reviews and books have been published on the aging of elastomers, but the overall view which they present of the oxidation of natural rubber and its vulcanizates still contains many puzzling features. Two of these are the variation of antioxidant efficiency in different types of vulcanizate, and the extent of the involvement of crosslink scission in the overall degradation process in sulfurated vulcanizates. Sometimes apparent contradictions have arisen from a failure to appreciate that aging of natural rubber vulcanizates depends primarily on four factors; the purity and type of rubber, the presence of additives, the type and extent of vulcanization, and the purification (if any) after cure. In many cases direct comparisons have been attempted without due consideration being given to all these factors, leading inevitably to some confusion. Recent work on the structure of vulcanizates has enabled the NRPRA to embark on a program of aging studies with vulcanizates of carefully controlled structure and complexity, which has already led to a better understanding of the processes involved in vulcanizate degradation. This review will attempt to elucidate the present state of knowledge, and will therefore be largely concerned with recent work at NRPRA, and its relation to previous studies. The review is divided into two main parts, they are: the effect of vulcanizate structure on aging, and the chemistry of oxidative scission reactions. Before attempting to rationalize the effect of vulcanizate structure on aging, structural characteristics of the most important types of vulcanizate are briefly discussed.