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The document summarizes a research article that studied the co-vulcanization and compatibility of blends of hydrogenated nitrile butadiene rubber (HNBR) and ethylene propylene diene rubber (EPDM) cured with either sulfur or peroxide curatives. Key findings include: (1) Peroxide-cured blends exhibited better efficiency in crosslinking the EPDM phase and sulfur for the HNBR phase due to their dissimilar polarities; (2) Peroxide-cured systems showed improved tensile strength retention after aging compared to sulfur-cured blends; (3) Dynamic mechanical analysis revealed two distinct rubber phases through two glass transition temperature peaks.

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31 views

BIO Science Writing

The document summarizes a research article that studied the co-vulcanization and compatibility of blends of hydrogenated nitrile butadiene rubber (HNBR) and ethylene propylene diene rubber (EPDM) cured with either sulfur or peroxide curatives. Key findings include: (1) Peroxide-cured blends exhibited better efficiency in crosslinking the EPDM phase and sulfur for the HNBR phase due to their dissimilar polarities; (2) Peroxide-cured systems showed improved tensile strength retention after aging compared to sulfur-cured blends; (3) Dynamic mechanical analysis revealed two distinct rubber phases through two glass transition temperature peaks.

Uploaded by

Anu
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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BIOS9500/04-March-2022

Assignment 1: Shortening a research article

HNBR/EPDM Blends: Covulcanization and Compatibility


Most previous research works were primarily focused on sulfur curing the dissimilar blends
leading to cure incompatibility[1]. Also, the sulfur-based curatives have more solubility in
unsaturated or polar materials resulting in non-uniform crosslinking[2, 3]. In our work, we
studied the co-vulcanization and compatibility characteristics of hydrogenated nitrile-
butadiene rubber and ethylene-propylene-diene rubber (HNBR/EPDM) blends with either
sulfur or peroxide as curatives. In addition to improvising the final properties, blending
EPDM with HNBR might be economically feasible[4, 5].

The HNBR/EPDM rubbers were mixed in HAAKE internal mixer at 100°C, 60 rpm for 5
minutes and transferred to a two-roll open mill for mixing the curing agents. The various
compositions of their specimens of 2mm thickness were cured at 160°C (sulfur-cured) and
170°C (peroxide-cured) using a hydraulic press. The specimens were then analyzed after pre-
conditioning at room temperature for 24 hours to obtain a precise view on their performance
properties.

The rheometric studies reveal that, in both curing systems, the optimum cure time increases
with decrease in the HNBR content. But the scorch time increases, and crosslinking density
decreases for sulfur-cured blends and vice-versa for peroxide-cured blends. Perhaps, we
found that the peroxide-cured blends need more time to reach optimum cure. However, both
rubbers exhibit better cure mechanisms with peroxide-cured systems and thus showing
improved cure compatibility.

Equilibrium swelling of the blends in chlorobenzene and cyclohexane showed that the
uncured content of HNBR is lesser than EPDM in any curing system. The amount of uncured
material is more in sulfur-cured systems and thus confirming our previous understanding.
The peroxide-cured blends exhibited better efficiency in crosslinking the EPDM phase and
sulfur for HNBR phase due to their dissimilar polarities.

The tensile strength (TS) and elongation at break (EB) for peroxide-cured systems were
lower since they have shorter chain length between two crosslinking points. However, with
an increase in HNBR content they showed better TS and EB in both curing systems. The
hardness and 50% modulus on peroxide-cured systems decreases with increasing the HNBR
proportion and opposite for sulfur-cured blends. Blends with higher HNBR content showed
poor retention of tensile strength after aging at 150°C for 72 hours irrespective of the
curatives used. However, peroxide-cured blends show better retention in tensile strength than
sulfur-cured blends.

We measured the dynamic mechanical properties at a heating rate of 2°C/min and a


frequency of 1 Hz with 0.01% strain. In sulfur-cured systems, the loss peaks of EPDM shifted
towards lower temperatures manifesting the decrease in their crosslinking density with the
addition of more HNBR. Whereas, for the peroxide-cured blends, both HNBR and EPDM
loss peaks have been shifted to lower temperatures.

Also, the two different glass transition temperature peaks from the dynamic mechanical
analysis (DMA) at around -10°C and -50°C further confirmed the presence of two distinct
rubber phases. In addition, the phase-separated images of the uncured HNBR/EPDM blends
were observed from the micrographs corroborating their limited compatibility.

We would like to thank LANXESS Deutschland GmbH and Shandong Science and
Technology Program for Universities (J12LA14) for their support.

References
1. A. D. Arup Kumar Ghosh, Dipak Kumar Basu, Effect of
Bis(diisopropyl)thiophosphoryl Disulfide on the Covulcanization of Styrene–
Butadiene Rubber and Ethylene–Propylene–Diene (Monomer) Blends. Journal of
Applied Polymer Science, 1231-1242 (2003).
2. R. Guo, A. G. Talma, R. N. Datta, W. K. Dierkes, J. W. M. Noordermeer, Novel
Surface Modification of Sulfur by Plasma Polymerization and its Application in
Dissimilar Rubber-Rubber Blends. Plasma Chemistry and Plasma Processing 30,
679-695 (2010).
3. R. Guo, A. G. Talma, R. N. Datta, W. K. Dierkes, J. W. M. Noordermeer, A Phase
Blending Study on Rubber Blends Based on the Solubility Preference of Curatives.
Macromolecular Materials and Engineering 294, 635-642 (2009).
4. A. Choudhury, A. K. Bhowmick, C. Ong, M. Soddemann, Influence of molecular
parameters on thermal, mechanical, and dynamic mechanical properties of
hydrogenated nitrile rubber and its nanocomposites. Polymer Engineering & Science
50, 1389-1399 (2010).
5. P. K. Das, A. Ganguly, M. Banerji, Electron-beam curing of hydrogenated
acrylonitrile-butadiene rubber. Journal of Applied Polymer Science 97, 648-651
(2005).
6. Z. Z. Xinyan Shi, Lingyan Jia, Qi Li, Weina Bi, HNBR/EPDM blends:
Covulcanization and compatibility. Journal of Applied Polymer Science, 3054-3060
(2013).

Word count: 505

Original article: HNBR/EPDM Blends: Covulcanization and Compatibility[6]

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