A New Method to Identify Rubbers and Elastomers using Swelling in Various Solvents

A method to identify cross-linked rubbers and elastomers is presented in this report. Three series of polyurethane elastomers with various chemical structures were swollen in selected solvents. The obtained results on the swelling degree of the studied elastomers Q, depended on the values of the solvent solubility parameters (δ1). It was found that the plots of the function Q = f(δ1) could be expressed in the forms of original diagrams useful for fast identification of rubbers and cross-linked elastomers. These diagrams were compared with each other and with the one for butyl rubber. The characteristic features of these diagrams (so-called swellograms) that were useful for the rubber identification are discussed.