Sulphur Vulcanisation of Styrene Butadiene Rubber Using New Binary Accelerator Systems

The influence of the newly developed binary accelerator 1-phenyl-2,4-dithiobiuret (DTB) in combination with sulphenamides like DCBS, MBS, TBBS on the cure characteristics, mechanical properties, viscoelastic behaviour and network characteristics of styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) is studied. Kinetics of vulcanisation is followed at three different temperatures. Mechanical properties are found to be improved upon DTB addition. Attempts have been made to correlate the observed properties with extent of crosslinking of DTB. Effect of aging on tensile properties of the vulcanisates was also done. The extent of crosslinking was also improved with DTB cured vulcanisates. Dynamic mechanical analysis has been done and the influence of the new accelerator systems on the modulus, glass transition and entanglement densities of the vulcanisates was investigated. The effect of fillers like carbon black and silica on DTB on technological properties of SBR vulcanisates and the extent of reinforcement caused by the fillers were also studied.