Thermal Aging Behaviors of Rubber Vulcanizates Cured with Single and Binary Cure Systems

In general, an accelerated sulfur cure system consists of elemental sulfur, one or two cure accelerators, and cure activators. Crosslink density of a rubber vulcanizate determines the physical properties. By increasing the crosslink density, the modulus, hardness, resilience, and abrasion resistance increase, whereas the elongation at break, heat build-up, and stress relaxation decrease. Sulfur linkages are composed of monosulfide, disulfide, and polysulfides. Sulfur linkages, especially polysulfides, are dissociated by heating and this brings about decrease of the crosslink density