Thermoplastic Elastomeric Blends Based on Waste Tires and Polyethylene: The Role of Rubber Particle Size

Abstract

Recycling of scrapped tires has become an essential worldwide challenge. The preparation of soft plastics, or thermoplastic elastomers (TPEs), is one of many ways possible for this. Many researchers have prepared TPEs using rubber particles with dimensions 500 μm or more. However, we assume mechanical properties of the TPEs could be improved by using rubber powder with smaller particles. Therefore, we studied the influence of six rubber powder fractions (diameters ranging from 120 to 500 μm) on mechanical properties of TPE samples prepared by blending of ground waste tire rubber (GTR) with low-density polyethylene (PE-LD) in the laboratory mixer (Brabender Plastograph). In addition, two adhesion components were applied: ethylene-propylene-diene rubber (EPDM) and a styrene-ethylene/butylene-styrene copolymer (SEBS). The results of tensile tests suggest that the use of smaller particle sizes, together with the adhesion component, can produce TPEs with improved mechanical properties.