Radiation Vulcanization of Enhanced and Reinforced SBR Rubber

The efficiency of the polyfunctional monomer, trimethylol propane trimethylacrylate TMPTMA, as a coagent additive towards the gamma radiation vulcanization of styrene butadiene rubber SBR was studied. This as carried out under environmental conditions for SBR that have been loaded with different concentrations of two different filler materials, namely Hi sil as a white filler and HAF carbon black as a black filler. The enhancing capacity of TMPTMA which increases the extent of crosslinking has been followed up by measurement of mechanical, physical, electrical and thermal properties of vulcanized SBR composites. Results obtained show that composites loaded with the white Hi sil filler have attained higher values in all properties with respect to the ones attained composites loaded with black HAF carbon black with exception of the electrical conductivity values. Moreover, the efficiency of TMPTMA has been manifested in decreasing the gel formation irradiation dose to 25 KGy and 5 kGy in absence and presence of fillers, respectively