The Effect of the Vulcanizing System on Cure and Mechanical Properties of Nbr/Epdm Blends

The effect of the curing system and curing parameters, mechanical properties, ageing resistance, and crosslink density of NBR/EPDM blends has been investigated. The curing characteristics of the blends were affected by the accelerator type and the sulphur concentration. The sulphur/benzothiazyl-disulphide (S/MBTS) vulcanizing system offered the best scorch safety, whereas those single and binary accelerator systems based on tetramethyl thiuram disulphide (TMTD) provided faster cure. The MBTS single accelerator system was able to crosslink the EPDM phase better and consequently displayed better mechanical performance than the other systems based on tetramethyl thiuram disulphide (TMTD). Higher thermal stability was also achieved in blends containing higher levels of sulphur, probably because of increased crosslinking in the EPDM phase. The results of dynamic mechanical investigations showed differences in the glass transition temperatures, which increased with increasing of the sulphur content in both S/MBTS and S/MBTS/TMTD vulcanizing systems. Formulations based on S/TMTD single accelerator systems gave the lowest values of Tg, and the amount of sulphur did not affect this property.