Chemorheological Study of Vulcanized Rubbers under Mechanical Stress

Below the glass transition temperature, the cleavage of molecular chains of extended vulcanized rubbers will occur. The crosslink density of vulcanized rubbers, which were placed at room temperature for about 4 h in a nitrogen atmosphere, increased about 17 per cent after extension of 200 per cent at −76° C. This may be due to the recombination of cleft chains, and this can be shown by the Maxwellian type of curves resulting from a plot of crosslink density as a function of forced strain. The decreasing proportion of crosslink density in the presence of radical acceptors in the rubbers and the increasing crosslink density in the absence of radical acceptors, because of recombination of cleft chains, was ascribed to the recombination of unstable chains produced by the added mechanical stimulus.