New Accelerators for Vulcanization of Rubber—Part III: Synthesis, Characterization, and Evaluation of Some 2-Mercaptobenzimidazole Derivatives
Abstract Five derivatives of 2-mercaptobenzimidazole containing S—N bonds have been synthesized and evaluated for their action as accelerator-antioxidant in NR gum stocks. All these compounds exhibit varying degree of accelerating efficiency; some of them, viz. MBSTP, MBSPT, and MBDSPT, offer excellent cure characteristics and vulcanizate properties comparable to some of the best commercially available curatives such as CPTD. Substitution at the N or S atom of the MB molecule does not affect adversely its antioxidant properties; rather, an improvement in aging resistance has been achieved. The degree and nature of substitution play an important role in the antioxidation properties of these MB derivatives. Thus, disubstitution offers better antioxidation characteristics than monosubstitution, and the latter, in turn, is better than unsubstituted MB. Some discussion on correlation of reactivities of these MB derivatives and their cure synergism with CPTD have been reported. It was observed that these new accelerator—antioxidant compounds show very little cure synergism with CPTD but do show promise as dual-function curatives for natural rubber.