An effect of OMMT on the anti‐reversion in NR/CR blend system

Abstract The influence of dispersed organomodified montmorillonite (OMMT) on curing behaviors of natural rubber (NR)/chloroprene rubber (CR) blend was investigated. The preparing procedure includes premixed rubber individually with its additives and then the two components were blended according to gum weight ratio for NR to CR is 75/25. Sulfur was chosen as the vulcanizing agent, and the research on vulcanization was carried through the rotor‐Rheometer at 143°C. Transmission electron microscopy showed the dispersion of OMMT in the rubber blends and detected little OMMT migrated into the NR phase. The scorch time ( t 10 ), optimum vulcanizing time ( t 90 ), and reversion phenomenon were both measured by the curing curve; meanwhile, the crosslinking densities and mechanical properties were determined through equilibrium swelling‐method, magnetic resonance crosslink density spectrometer, and tensile tests. By comparing the test results, an interesting phenomenon was discovered and furthermore was verified that the addition of OMMT can obviously modify the reversion resistance of the binary blend. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2009