Stress Relaxation of Peroxide and Sulfur Vulcanizates of Natural Rubber

Abstract

Abstract Direct chemical investigation of the degradation of polymeric networks is usually impracticable owing to the experimental difficulty of insolubility and to the fact that reaction at only a small proportion of network units is sufficient to cause marked alteration of network structure. Resort has, therefore, to be made to the measurement of physical changes brought about by the chemical reactions. Change of tension at constant extension is a useful measure for this purpose, since statistical elasticity theory predicts a direct proportionality between the tension and the number of chains supporting the stress. The present purpose is: (1) to describe a stress relaxometer possessing certain advantages over previous models; (2) to report on the stress relaxation of peroxide-crosslinked rubber, which can be considered from a chemical viewpoint to be the simplest possible rubber network; (3) to point out some complications in the relaxation behavior of sulfur vulcanizates, and (4) to interpret the shapes of stress relaxation curves.