Factors Influencing the Ozone Resistance of Neoprene Vulcanizates under Flexure

Abstract The need for dynamic testing conditions, such as mild flexing, to study the attack of ozone on elastomeric vulcanizates, has become increasingly apparent. Many rubber goods, such as belts, tire sidewalls, and hose, are subjected to intermittent or continuously fluctuating strains in service and to evaluate their ozone resistance under constant stress or strain conditions is unrealistic and often leads to entirely erroneous conclusions. For example, it is well known that under static strain a vulcanizate's ozone resistance is enhanced by compounding with a wax which migrates to its surface and forms a protective film. However, numerous investigators have reported that when a wax film is continuously ruptured by dynamic testing, the vulcanizate is even more vulnerable to ozone attack than if no wax were present. Other surface films also may act detrimentally under dynamic conditions. One such film may form under static exposure by the migration of antiozonants to the surface of a sample where they or their ozone reaction products provide a shield against ozone. Also, diene elastomers, even when not under stress, react with ozone without cracking and it has been postulated that the thin films formed as a result of this reaction are less extensible and consequently more subject to rupture on flexing than the unreacted rubber beneath them. It may well be found that the resistance of any surface barrier to dynamic stresses is the limiting factor for many products in service. Consequently, techniques for testing under dynamic conditions are needed at least to supplement testing under constant stress or strain in ozone. Ozone exposure under dynamic conditions may prove to have analytical advantages over the static method. First, because dynamic tests accelerate ozone attack over that obtained statically even though no increased strain is impressed. This permits the more ozone resistant elastomers to be tested at lower concentrations of ozone than would be possible statically. By testing in more dilute ozone, the correlation between results obtained under atmospheric exposure and the ozone cabinet should be better. Also, it seems likely that compounding ingredients which improve ozone resistance under dynamic conditions should provide improvement under static conditions as well, even though the converse is not necessarily true.