The effect of physical treatments of waste rubber powder on the mechanical properties of the revulcanizate

Abstract

The diversiform physical treatment processes of waste rubber powder were carried out using grinding process, ozone treatment, and ultrasonic treatment. The effects of these processes on hardness, specific gravity, crosslink, tensile strength, elongation, and dynamic mechanical properties were studied. Also, the morphology and the chain structure changing of waste rubber powder were studied by SEM and XPS, respectively. The ozone/ultrasonic treatment was found to be the most effective treatment to improve the mechanical properties of waste rubber powder revulcanizate. The effect of mechanism may be due to the sulfur crosslinkage network changed to a cyclic form. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.