Influence of Crosslink Density on Mechanical Properties of Natural Rubber Vulcanizates

Crosslink density is an important structural parameter for cured rubber. Natural rubber (NR) vulcanizates with different crosslink densities were obtained through using different sulfur and accelerator amounts and different accelerator types. The crosslink density was characterized by an 1 H-NMR technique and its influence on mechanical properties, such as Shore A hardness, 300% modulus, tensile strength, and elongation at break, of NR vulcanizates was investigated. The results showed that both the sulfur amount and the accelerator type and amount had an influence on the crosslink density of the NR networks. The relationship between total crosslink density and mechanical properties was also studied. The results, by changing either the sulfur or the accelerator amount, showed that tensile strength of NR vulcanizates reached maximum value when the total crosslink density was around 13.5 × 10−5 mol/cm3, equivalently the average molecular weight of the intercrosslink chains (Mc) was around 7000 g/mol. The maximum value of tensile strength came from the balance between contributions of crosslink joints and stretch-induced orientation and/or crystallization of intercrosslink chains. The study on influence of total crosslink density on Shore A hardness and 300% modulus of NR vulcanizates showed that they both increased linearly with the crosslink density, the slopes were 2.7 ∼ 3.0 cm3/10−5 mol and 0.27 ∼ 0.31 MPa cm3/10−5 mol for Shore A hardness and 300% modulus, respectively, whether the crosslink density was varied by sulfur or accelerator.