ELASTOMER TECHNOLOGY

1. Introduction
The final class of high polymers to be considered as elastomers. Like fibers, elastomers are considered apart from other polymeric materials because of their special properties.

 Unlike fibers, elastomers do not in general lend themselves to plastics uses, Elastomers must be amorphous when unstretched and must be above their glass transition temperature to be elastic, Whereas plastic must be crystalline or must be used below this temperature to preserve dimensional stability.

2. Vulcanization
The process by which a network of crosslinks is introduced into an elastomer is called vulcanization.

The profound effects of vulcanization are clear: it transforms an elastomer from a weak thermoplastic mass without useful mechanical properties into a strong, elastic, tough rubber.

 The tensile strength, stiffness, and hysteresis of natural rubber before and after vulcanization are shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1: Stress-Strain curves to 600% elongation, a typical vulcanized and unvulcanized natural rubber.

 For many decades following Goodyears first experiments in heating rubber with small amounts of sulfur, This process provided the best and most practical method for bringing about the drastic property changes described by the term vulcanization, not only in natural rubber but also in the diene synthetic elastomer such as SBR, butyl, and nitrile rubbers.

 It has been found since, sulfur is essential to the vulcanization process. Rubber can be vulcanization or cured without heat by the action of sulfur chloride, for example.

 Since the chemical reactions associated with vulcanization are varied and involve only a few atoms in each polymer molecule, a definition of vulcanization in terms of the physical properties of the rubber is necessary.

 In this sense, vulcanization may be defined as any treatment that decrease the flow of an elastomer, increases its tensile strength a modulus, but preserves its extensibility.

There is little doubt that these changes are due primarily to chemical crosslinking reactions between polymer molecules.

 As might be expected, such properties as tensile strength are relatively insensitive to the onset of these crosslinking reactions; tensile strength does indeed change tenfold during curing, but this evidence of the profound alteration of polymer properties by the process. Test based on melt flow are more sensitive to initial crosslinking reactions and are widely used in the rubber industry.

 Although vulcanization takes place by heat in the presence of sulfur alone, the process is relatively slow.
It can be speeded many fold by the addition of small amounts of organic or inorganic compounds known as accelerators. Many accelerators require the presence of still another type of chemicals known as activators or promoters before their full effects are realized.

 These activators are usually metallic oxides, such as zinc oxide. They function best in the presence of a rubber-soluble metallic soap, which may be formed during the curing reaction from the activator and fatty acid.

 The most efficient combination of chemicals for sulfur vulcanization includes sulfur, an organic accelerator, a metallic oxide, and soap.