Model-compound vulcanization - An established technique for the next century

This paper is concerned with the background and application of Model-Compou nd Vulcanization (MCV) as a technique to investigate sulfur, peroxide and o ther types of vulcanization, It deals with many practical aspects of MCV, s uch as the choice of the model compound and the experimental conditions, as pects which have an important bearing on the outcome of an MCV study. Furth ermore, the most relevant chromatographic and spectroscopic analysis techni ques for MCV are dealt with, among which are HPLC, GC, NMR and IR spectrosc opy. The paper thus discusses and evaluates a variety of practical and theo retical aspects, in order to (re)establish MCV as one of the primary resear ch tools for vulcanization chemistry.