My bachelor thesis was to manufacture a thermoplastic elastomer using recycle rubber gloves (rRG) and polypropylene. I got a problem when I solved rRG in xylene because it hasn't solved but it's swelled. I has read that rubber was solved in petroleum eter, so why it can't solved in xylene? I'am using xylene because it was good to solved polypropylene (matrix polymer that I used). Thank you.
Dear Ozi Adi Saputra;
the answer is simple. You are using a cured or crosslinked rubber since it was already processed and recycled. Swelling is the maximum response of a crosslinked polymeric matrix. The one you said it was dissolved in petroleum ether may be it concerns the virgin uncured rubber. For the polyolefins such as PP it not really soluble, ruther at high temperature a highly viscous paste is formed, which means no free chain flowing is achieved unless the concentration is reduced to a very low one, but here difficult to realize a blend with interpeneration of the two matrix. Regards
Thank you very much for your answer Mr. Abdelkader Bouaziz.
So I must break the crosslinked chain (devulcanized) before I blend it with polypropylene? Does the devulcanized rubber also soluble in petroleum ether as virgin rubber?
Regards
Dear Ozi Adi Saputra;
though Ignoring the nature of this rubber and its crosslink nature, I don't think it is possible to break selectively the crosslinks without imparting a whole damage to the matrix (neat polymer). Regards
Gloves always consist of cross-linked rubber. But cross-link density is appropriately low to devulcanize rubber using convenient devulcanization processes (for example, by mechanochemical approach on a roll mill in partially swelled condition). For swelling you can select industrial oils, natral oils, bitumen etc. Additionally in the composition you can add thiuram disulfide, ZnO and some other additives.
There are several types of rubber from which gloves can be produced. For instance, there are disposable gloves made from nitrile butadiene rubber (NBR). Xylene ─ selected because suitable for polypropylene ─ is a mixture of aromatic hydrocarbon isomers, while suitable solvents for NBR are typically ketones, acetate esters, or chlorinated organic compounds (which may be aromatic). Owing to its similarity with xylene, it seems that aromatic chlorinated solvents may possibly perform better than xylene for the intended goal. Such a solvent might possibly be selected among benzochloride, benzoyl chloride, benzyl chloride, benzyl dichloride, chlorodiphenyl, monochlorobenzene, o-dichlorobenzene, or trichlorobenzene. Solvent mixtures containing xylene might also be more effective than this pure solvent.
https://www.researchgate.net/post/How_to_calculate_d_p_and_h_Hansen_Parameters_of_polymers_and_solvents_at_different_temperatures2
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