Polarographic Determination of Accelerators, Antioxidants, and Other Rubber Chemicals. I.
Abstract The present paper shows that the Polarographic method for the determination of rubber additives (rubber chemicals) delivers fully usable results. The following points are discussed : 1. The method is qualified for a rapid quantitative determination of MBT and 2-mercaptobenzimidazole in raw materials control. 2. The zinc salt of MBT can be indirectly determined after its decomposition with acid. 3. MBT and 2-mercaptobenzimidazole can be determined directly in the methanolic extracts of masterbatches. 4. As with the masterbatches, MBT can be determined directly in the extracts of rubber stocks and vulcanizates when zinc oxide is absent. Magnesium oxide or zinc stearate do not interfere. 5. Experimental conditions are given which permit quantitative determinations of MBT in the presence of zinc oxide in uncured and cured rubber compounds. 6. The experiments have shown that the method is applicable to complex recipes containing MBT as the only accelerator. Of course, the limit of error is higher, that is, around −5%. The investigations are being continued and the results will be presented at a later date.