Hi all, I am currently studying the determination and quantifying the degree of cure of rubber based on the difference of reaction enthalpy peak measured by DSC as area under the curve. I am currently facing issue with uncure rubber as DSC is unable to produce the reaction curve, suspect could be due to high moisture. I am hoping if somebody can provide or advise me on sample preparation of compounded uncure rubber sample for DSC to measure the enthalpy (energy value released during vulcanisation). Thank you.
Cure studies on rubbers can be difficult for two reasons. Firstly, the majority of cure systems that are used commercially release significant amounts of volatiles, masking the cure exotherm. Secondly, many cure reactions (especially Sulphur cures) involve a great variety of different reactions and the overall reaction exotherm can be very small.
To overcome problems with loss of volatiles, whether cure reaction by-products or moisture, use high pressure pans that are able to retain the volatiles.
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