Ozone degradation of polychloroprene rubber in solution

Abstract

Some features of ozone degradation of 1,4- trans-polychloroprene in solution have been studied. It was found that acid chloride is the only carbonyl group formed upon degradation, its amount being equivalent to about 60% of the reacted ozone. It was shown further that the thermal stability of partially ozonized polychloroprene, estimated by the value of the activation energy for thermal decomposition of functional groups of the peroxide type, was considerably lower than that of similarly treated 1,4- cis-polybutadiene. The observed highly efficient degradation of polychloroprene with respect to the amount of reacted ozone is used to advance arguments in favour of our suggestion that, in contrast to the kinetics of ozone consumption and vulcanizates structure, the reaction mechanism does not have a major effect on the resistance of the respective vulcanizates to ozone ageing.