Generic Recycling Strategy to Improve Robustness of Recycled Rubbers through Bioinspired Multiphase Network

Abstract

Recycling of rubbers is extraordinarily important for the sustainable development of the rubber industry. However, the traditional rubber recycling processes do not only deteriorate the properties of recycled rubbers but also bring environmental pollution. Inspired by the structure of mussel byssus, our group designs bioinspired multiphase network to improve the robustness of recycled rubbers. Through increasing the content of dynamic S–S cross-links, we improve the interface interaction between isoprene rubber (IR) and waste rubber (WR). Further, the combination of IR with WR forms a dense network domain (DND) and a sparse network domain (SND), constructing the bioinspired multiphase cross-linking network. Such a multiphase network contributes to stress transfer. Upon stretching, the preferential rupture of DND improves the toughness through energy dissipation. Compared with the previous works, our designed recycled rubbers exhibit superior properties. This work presents a simple generic method to increase the robustness of recycled rubbers through bioinspired multiphase network.