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ELASTOMERS AND PLASTICS Characterization of Material Inhomogeneities from Crosslinking in Polymer Blends 

Von Maike Tebben, Ulrich Giese, Hannover, Germany 1 min Lesedauer

The aim of the present work was the spatial characterization of potential inhomogeneities in epoxidized NR (e-NR) / solution SBR (s-SBR) rubber blends caused by crosslinking. In addition to micro-indentation and atomic force microscopy (AFM), the investigated samples were also characterized by TEM, DSC and physical testing methods.

Figure 1: Thermograms from DSC of the investigated uncrosslinked blends (left) and the change of glass transition temperature with different blend ratios:ΔTg= Tg, of polymerphase in blend – Tg, of uncrosslinked rubber (right), with 2.5 phr CBS and 1.7 phr sulfur.(Bild:)
Figure 1: Thermograms from DSC of the investigated uncrosslinked blends (left) and the change of glass transition temperature with different blend ratios:ΔTg= Tg, of polymerphase in blend – Tg, of uncrosslinked rubber (right), with 2.5 phr CBS and 1.7 phr sulfur.
(Bild:)

Introduction Modern elastomers have to fulfill an increasing number of requirements on chemical and physical properties. For improvement of elastomer materials, it is a common practice to combine the properties of different rubbers in a blend system. For example, the abrasion behavior, elasticity and low-temperature performance of tire tread compounds based on styrene-butadiene rubbers (SBR) can be improved by blending them with a cispolybutadiene (cis-BR) or natural rubber (NR), which are characterized by high mobility of the polymer chains and a low glass transition temperature due to their polymer constitution and configuration.