The role of carbon black on devulcanization of natural rubber by microwaves

Abstract

One of the greatest problems of the modern society is the recycling of vulcanized elastomers, like tires and industrial rejects. This work studies one of the techniques of devulcanization of natural rubber (NR), the devulcanization by microwaves, as well as the influence of the amount of carbon black on this process through devulcanization of the NR with controlled composition on it. The samples were analyzed by Soxhlet extraction and some important correlations could be made based on its results and also by the final temperature of the samples just after the time of exposure to microwaves. The results highlighted that the increase of the temperature is responsible for the occurrence of devulcanization, which is dependent on both the amount of carbon black present in the rubber and the time of exposure to microwaves. These factors can influence its degree of devulcanization, since they are important for the absorption of energy by the material.