Nanoscale Cooperative Length of Local Segmental Motion in Polybutadiene

Glassy and Polymer Dynamics of Elastomers by 1H Field-Cycling NMR Relaxometry: Effects of Cross-Linking

¹H spin lattice relaxation rate (R₁) dispersions were acquired by field-cycling (FC) NMR relaxometry between 0.01 and 35 MHz over a wide temperature range on polyisoprene (IR), polybutadiene (BR), and poly(styrene-co-butadiene) (SBR) rubbers, obtained by vulcanization under different conditions, and on the corresponding uncured elastomers. By exploiting the frequency–temperature superposition principle, χ″(ωτ_s) master curves were constructed by shifting the total FC NMR susceptibility, χ″(ω) = ωR₁(ω), curves along the frequency axis by the correlation times for glassy dynamics, τ_s. Longer τ_s values and, correspondingly, higher glass transition temperatures were determined for the sulfur-cured elastomers with respect to the uncured ones, which increased by increasing the cross-link density, whereas no significant changes were found for fragility. The contribution of polymer dynamics, χ_pol^″(ω), to χ″(ω) was singled out by subtracting the contribution of glassy dynamics, χ_glass^″(ω), well represented using a Cole–Davidson spectral density. For all elastomers, χ_pol^″(ω) was found to represent a small fraction, on the order of 0.05–0.14, of the total χ″(ω), which did not show a significant dependence on cross-link density. In the investigated temperature and frequency ranges, polymer dynamics was found to encompass regimes I (Rouse dynamics) and II (constrained Rouse dynamics) of the tube reptation model for the uncured elastomers and only regime I for the vulcanized ones. This is clear evidence that chemical cross-links impose constraints on chain dynamics on a larger space and time scale than free Rouse modes.

A Nonequilibrium Model for Particle Networking/Jamming and Time-Dependent Dynamic Rheology of Filled Polymers

We describe an approach for modeling the filler network formation kinetics of particle-reinforced rubbery polymers-commonly called filler flocculation-that was developed by employing parallels between deformation effects in jammed particle systems and the influence of temperature on glass-forming materials. Experimental dynamic viscosity results were obtained concerning the strain-induced particle network breakdown and subsequent time-dependent reformation behavior for uncross-linked elastomers reinforced with carbon black and silica nanoparticles. Using a relaxation time function that depends on both actual dynamic strain amplitude and fictive (structural) strain, the model effectively represented the experimental data for three different levels of dynamic strain down-jump with a single set of parameters. This fictive strain model for filler networking is analogous to the established Tool-Narayanaswamy-Moynihan model for structural relaxation (physical aging) of nonequilibrium glasses. Compared to carbon black, precipitated silica particles without silane surface modification exhibited a greater overall extent of filler networking and showed more self-limiting behavior in terms of network formation kinetics in filled ethylene-propylene-diene rubber (EPDM). The EPDM compounds with silica or carbon black filler were stable during the dynamic shearing and recovery experiments at 160 °C, whereas irreversible dynamic modulus increases were noted when the polymer matrix was styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR), presumably due to branching/cross-linking of SBR in the rheometer. Care must be taken when measuring and interpreting the time-dependent filler networking in unsaturated elastomers at high temperatures.

INTERPRETATION OF THE TANδ PEAK HEIGHT FOR PARTICLE-FILLED RUBBER AND POLYMER NANOCOMPOSITES WITH RELEVANCE TO TIRE TREAD PERFORMANCE BALANCE

The aim of this research is to clarify the meaning of the peak height for the viscoelastic loss tangent (tanδ) in the glass transition region of particle-filled rubber, polymer nanocomposites, and polymer systems in general. Filler, oil, and curative loadings were systematically varied in a model styrene-butadiene rubber formulation with carbon black as the reinforcing filler. The dynamic mechanical responses of these compounds enabled a detailed study of the glass-to-rubber softening transition, which is known to play an important role with respect to the balance of traction, handling, and rolling resistance characteristics of tire treads. From the temperature-dependent viscoelastic results that were acquired at fixed frequency and small dynamic strain, it was demonstrated that a higher peak value for tanδ was correlated with a lower dynamic modulus in the rubbery state. Adjusting filler volume fraction was found to be an effective way of changing the rubbery modulus and hence the tanδ peak height. It was furthermore verified that such a correlation is a universal material-independent viscoelastic effect by mathematically producing a similar trend by varying the rubbery modulus parameter in the Havriliak–Negami viscoelastic model. This investigation also showed why glass transition temperature should be determined from the position of the loss modulus peak and not the tanδ peak. Cure behavior, tensile stress–strain properties, and extent of filler networking (Payne effect) for these rubber compounds will additionally be discussed.

Free volumes and gas transport in polymers: amine-modified epoxy resins as a case study

The CO2 transport process was studied in a series of amine-modified epoxy resins having different cross-linking densities but the same chemical environment for the penetrant molecules. Positron Annihilation Lifetime Spectroscopy (PALS) was used to monitor the free volume structure of the samples and experimentally evaluate their fractional free volume fh(T) and its temperature evolution. The analysis of the free volume hole size distribution showed that all the holes have a size large enough to accommodate the penetrant molecules at temperatures T above the glass transition temperature Tg. The measured gas diffusion constants at T > Tg have been reproduced in the framework of the free volume theory of diffusion using a novel procedure based on the use of fh(T) as an input experimental parameter.