Scorching of Rubber Mixes. I. Structural Changes in Unfilled and Filled Stocks
Abstract 1. In the process of scorching there takes place a combination of the sulfur with the rubber. The flow of unfilled stocks heated at 120° ceases at the instant of combination of ∼0.5% sulfur reckoned on the stock. 2. In carbon black filled stocks there is an increase in the rate of combination of sulfur with rubber and a decrease in the time for which the stock is in the flow state, as the pH value of the carbon black added to the stock increases. 3. In processing a stock on the mill in the presence of fine-particle carbon black there is formed a rubber-carbon black gel, the amount of which hardly changes in the process of heating the stock in the plastimeter at 120°; only at the instant of cessation of the flow of the stock does its solubility decrease perceptibly. 4. In filled stocks in which a rubber-carbon black gel is formed in the course of treatment on the mill, the limiting amount of bound sulfur combined at the instant of cessation of the flow of the stock is less than in stocks in which no rubber-carbon black gel is formed. 5. Alteration in the amount of oxygen-containing functional groups upon the surface of the carbon black does not cause any important influence upon the amount of rubber-carbon black gel, but significantly alters the rate of combination of sulfur with rubber and the tendency of the stock to premature vulcanization. 6. Thus the phenomenon of premature vulcanization is governed for the most part by the reaction of the rubber with the sulfur and the other vulcanizing agents. In stocks with fine-particle carbon blacks there is also a significant influence from the formation of the rubber-carbon black gel in the processing of the stock on the mill.