Nitrile rubber-the influence of acrylonitrile content on the thermo-oxidative aging

Macromolecules with saturated bonds and unbranched chains are resistant to oxidation and their speed of oxidation is very small. The increasing content of double bonds in the macromolecule leads to lower resistance to oxidation, which may result in cleavage of the macromolecules, in cross-linking or in the formation of new functional groups. Due to its double bonds, rubber is very responsive to oxidation. Directly by ATR-FTIR measuring the absorbances after thermal degradation at high temperatures, it was possible to determine quantitatively each of the functional groups after the degradation of Nitrile-Butadiene Rubber (NBR). Ageing degradation leads to dramatic modifications of the chemical structure of the macromolecules. The objective of this contribution is studying the influence of the acrylonitrile content on the thermo-oxidative aging and the investigation of the spectral changes of functional groups as a function of the thermal aging time.