Abstract
Endowing rubber with excellent recycling ability is of great significance for energy conservation. It is still a huge challenge to obtain high-performance recyclable commercial rubber to satisfy practical applications. Herein, a facile strategy of incorporating exchangeable Zn2+-carboxyl crosslinks into commercial EPDM system was developed through reaction of zinc acetate and EPDM grafted maleic anhydride (EPDM-g-MAH) to obtain EPDM-g-MAZn. The constructed exchangeable crosslinking networks as sacrificial unit significantly enhanced mechanical properties of EPDM, much higher than EPDM cured by covalent bonds (tensile strength: 2.00 MPa and fracture toughness: 6.75 MJ/m3). The dynamic crosslinking was reversibly broken and reformed by hot pressing, endowing EPDM-g-MAZn with good recycling ability. The promising mechanical properties of EPDM-g-MAZn can be tailored by incorporation of carbon black (CB) or zinc dimethacrylate (ZDMA), and recycled EPDM-g-MAZn/CB exhibited good mechanical properties to meet industrial applications. Additionally, multiple crosslinking networks were constructed for EPDM-g-MAZn/ZDMA with fine dispersion of ZDMA due to Zn2+-carboxyl interactions. Such effective strategy exhibits a promising perspective in industrial applications of high-performance recyclable rubber field.
Published Version
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