Nature of Network, Carbon-Black-Rubber Interaction and Heat Aging of Polyethylacrylate Vulcanizates

Abstract

Abstract Two commercial polyethylacrylate elastomers, having about 50 Mooney Index were selected. They were compounded with 50 parts of N330 carbon black per 100 parts of rubber by weight. One sample having epoxide (EP) crosslinking sites was crosslinked with ammoniumbenzoate. The other having double-bonds by copolymerizing with ethylidene norbornene (ENB) was crosslinked with a sulfur system. The vulcanizates were oven aged at 175°C for 70 h. Tensile stress-strain measurements were performed with the gum rubbers, uncured compounds, unaged vulcanizates, and heat-aged vulcanizates. The data presented as tensile modulus—strain curves revealed the following: at all strain levels, the moduli of ENB gum samples were lower than those of EP gums. After compounding with carbon black, the moduli of two samples became very similar. This indicates that ENB has more affinity with carbon black than EP has. The vulcanizates of two samples has matching moduli at 10% strain but a difference in network structure, since the molecular architecture of the gum rubbers were very different. After heat aging, moduli at small strains increased significantly but not at large strains. The increases were very similar for both samples. The heat-aging characteristics may be very similar for both samples, in spite of the difference in the chemical nature of the crosslinks.