Mechano-chemical recycling of sulfur cured natural rubber

Abstract

The disposal of cured rubber has become a major environmental problem. Discarded rubber was devulcanized by an open two-roll cracker-cum mixing mill both in the presence or absence of diphenyl disulfide at 120°C (Mechano-Chemical Process, MCP), and then the obtained devulcanized mass was revulcanized again by the addition of sulfur and N-cyclohexyl-2-benzothiazyl sulfonamide (CBS). A new look at the devulcanization mechanism and the influence of the devulcanizing agent on the mechanical properties of the ultimate revulcanized rubber are presented in this paper. Rheometric characteristics show that both the scorch time and curing rate were low for revulcanized rubber. One of the most interesting observations is that the mechanical properties of revulcanized rubber obtained by devulcanizing in the presence of disulfide were better than of the revulcanized rubber obtained by devulcanizing in absence of disulfide. The formation of extra crosslinking in disulfide containing revulcanized rubber was confirmed by crosslinking density data. By adopting this devulcanization technique mechanical properties of vulcanized natural rubber were retained in more than 87%.