Crosslinking process and properties of unconventional blends of chloroprene rubber and partially hydrogenated acrylonitrile-butadiene rubber

The properties of unconventional elastomer blends of crystallizable and thermally crosslinkable chloroprene rubber (CR) with partially hydrogenated (>95 mol %) acrylonitrile-butadiene rubber (THNBR) were investigated. The blends were prepared by reactive processing combined with dynamic, selective thermal curing of CR and subsequent crosslinking with tetramethylthiuram disulfide (TMTD) and zinc oxide at 433 K. The crosslinking kinetics and tensile mechanical properties of the produced blends were studied. The morphology of blends was investigated using atomic force microscopy (AFM) method and the degree of crosslinking was determined by equilibrium swelling in selected solvents. It has been found that CR/THNBR blends containing 25-45 phr thermally cured CR, subsequently cross linked with TMTD/ZnO system are characterized by higher crosslinking degree and higher tensile strength than CR/THNBR blends with only thermally cured CR.