The influence of devulcanization and revulcanization on sulfur crosslink types: Recycling of ground tyre rubber by solid-state shear milling

Description

This paper seeks to establish whether bond breaking from the S3M process has some selectivity between mono-/di-/poly- sulfidic bonds. The crosslink densities of ground tyre rubber (GTR) with increasing numbers of solid-state shear milling cycles (1-4) were established by swelling in toluene. The sulfur bond ratios of these GTRs was measured, following the process from Choi and Kim [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polymertesting.2014.12.007]. This will allow both the S3M process itself and the revulcanization process to be modified to provide greater control of the properties of recycled rubber. GTR that had been through 4 S3M cycles was also blended with virgin natural rubber (vNR), and different sulfur/accelerator ratios were applied to reintroduce specific sulfur bond-types. Finally, the overall effect of crosslink densities and sulfur bond ratios of these recycled blends was evaluated by tensile testing.

Steps to reproduce

Please see the methodology section of the included draft paper for details on how each of the results were produced.

Institutions

• University of Bradford

  West Yorkshire, Bradford

Categories

Funders

• Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

  England, United Kingdom

  Grant ID: EP/S018573/1

Licence