Arr. Menon et al., CHEMICAL CROSS-LINK DENSITY AND NETWORK STRUCTURE OF NATURAL-RUBBER VULCANIZATES MODIFIED WITH PHOSPHORYLATED CARDANOL PREPOLYMER, Journal of applied polymer science, 51(13), 1994, pp. 2157-2164
The chemical crosslink density (CLD) and network structure of natural
rubber (NR) vulcanizates, modified with phosphorylated cardanol prepol
ymer (PCP), have been studied by equilibrium swelling and other chemic
al methods. The PCP-modified NR vulcanizates showed lower CLD, as comp
ared to the unmodified NR samples, the decrease being lesser for the s
emiefficient vulcanization (SEV) system, as compared to the convention
al (CV) and efficient (EV) vulcanization systems. The superior tensile
characteristics of the PCP-modified vulcanizates of the SEV system is
presumed to be partly due to the presence of an entangled network str
ucture between the aliphatic segment of PCP and the isoprene chains, a
s evident from X-ray diffraction studies. The critical role of Zn++ io
ns in the crosslinking reactions, especially at higher concentrations
of PCP, was evident from the increase in CLD at higher concentrations
of ZnO. The reduction in the IR absorption intensity, in the presence
of ZnO, indicated the probable complex formation of Zn++ ions with the
phosphate groups of PCP. (C) 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.