Investigation of Effect of Resin Content on the Stress Relaxation of poly (epichlorohydrin-co-ethylene oxide) based Elastomer

Abstract

In this study, the effect of C9/C10 aromatic hydrocarbon resin (Novares TL 100) and resin amount on the curing and thermo-mechanical properties of poly(epichlorohydrin-co-ethylene oxide) based elastomer mixtures was investigated. In the prepared mixtures, the curing parameters of mixtures that did not contain resin and mixtures containing resin in different proportions were examined. When examining the curing parameters, it was observed that with increasing resin content, the pre-curing time (ts2) and optimum curing time (t90) increased and the curing rate decreased. Moving mold rheometer studies showed that as the amount of resin increased, cross-link formation reactions were delayed or negatively affected. Additionally, temperature scanning stress relaxation tester (TSSR) studies were conducted to evaluate the effect of the resin on the creep behavior, service temperature, and cross-link density of the prepared vulcanizants. TSSR studies were carried out in two stages: first after curing and then after removing the resin from the vulcasinates by soaking the test samples in toluene. TSSR data showed that resin amounts exceeding 5 phr, the creep behavior of poly(epichlorohydrin-co-ethylene oxide) based elastomers, clearly showed that it negatively affects the service temperature and cross-link density.