With the wide variety of elastomers, fillers, and other compounding ingredients available today, there is increasing demand for rubber compounds with specific properties. The systematic development of the desired rubber compound can be undermined by the exposure of the compound to oxygen and ozone during use. Thus, a rubber compounder should be aware of the effects of oxygen and ozone attack on rubber and how to compound for oxygen and ozone resistance. This short review is intended as an introduction to the phenomena of oxidation and ozonation of rubber.
Qualitative studies reported earlier and the kinetic studies reported here indicate that the unsaturated fatty acids in guayule resin are primarily responsible for the ability of guayule resin to accelerate the oxidative degradation of natural rubber. These unsaturated fatty acids apparently oxidize to form peroxide compounds which function as initiators of rubber oxidation.
This study indicates that the degradative effects of guayule resin on natural rubber are due to the presence of unsaturated fatty acids in the resin. Since linoleic acid is, by far, the most abundant unsaturated fatty acid in guayule resin, it appears that linoleic acid is primarily responsible for the degradative effects of guayule resin on natural rubber. A possible mechanism to explain the acceleration of natural rubber degradation caused by linoleic acid can be developed by fitting linoleic acid into the Bolland oxidation mechanism for hydrocarbon polymers.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.