I'm trying to make lightweight rubber. I intend to add foaming agent in to rubber compositions and changing content of filler but this will decrease mechanical properties. What others factors in rubber compositions should I change to decrease the density of rubber without much changing in mechanical properties?
Foams often reduce the mechanical properties of elastomers. You will get better results if you use hollow micropheres as fillers (glass, ceramic hollow pearls, see first and second link below). Reasonable results with cellular rubbers you can achieve, if you use a vulcanization reagent with evolves nitrogen. m-Benzenedisulfonyl azide is such combination of foaming reagent and curing agent in one compound (see third link). Perhaps RHEINCHEMIE offers such products but you can make it easily from m-benzenedisulfonyl chloride in acetone with sodium azide in water.
http://www.dicalite-europe.com/dicaperl.htm
http://www.compositesworld.com/articles/microspheres-fillers-filled-with-possibilities
http://www.google.ch/patents/US2830029
Dear Mr.Burkhard Koehler
Thanks for your advice. Can you tell me more detail about which level of temperature we use m-Benzenedisulfonyl azide as a curing agent?
m-Benzenedisulfonyl azide works at 180°C. It works easier with double bond containing rubbers (BR, IR, NR, NBR, SBR, CR) but even saturated rubbers (EVA, EP) or low unsaturated rubbers (IIR, Therban) should be accessible to vulcanization with diazides. In this case the in situ formed nitrene inserts in a C-H bond.
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