Crosslinked Elastomers: Structure–Property Relationships and Stress-Optical Law

We present a combination of independent techniques in order to characterize crosslinked elastomers. We combine well-established macroscopic methods, such as rheological and mechanical experiments and equilibrium swelling measurements, a more advanced technique such as proton multiple-quantum NMR, and a new method to measure stress-induced segmental orientation by in situ tensile X-ray scattering. All of these techniques give access to the response of the elastomer network in relation to the crosslinking of the systems. Based on entropic elasticity theory, all these quantities are related to segmental orientation effects through the so-called stress-optical law. By means of the combination of these techniques, we investigate a set of unfilled sulfur-vulcanized styrene butadiene rubber elastomers with different levels of crosslinking. We validate that the results of all methods correlate very well. The relevance of this approach is that it can be applied in any elastomer materials, including materials representative of various industrial application, without prerequisite as regards, e.g., optical transparency or simplified formulation. Moreover, the approach may be used to study reinforcement effects in filled elastomers with nanoparticles.