Behavior of Different Fractions of Purified Hevea Rubber during Vulcanization

Abstract Considerable data on the vulcanization characteristics of molecular fractions of ordinary (unpurified) natural rubber are available. There is, on the other hand, little information of any systematic work on the vulcanization of purified rubber and of its fractions. Pummerer and Pahl vulcanized the sol and gel fractions obtained from purified Hevea rubber, and also the purified whole rubber. But apart from a statement that whole rubber vulcanized much faster than the two fractions obtained from it, no details have been published. Vulcanization of purified whole rubber and of its sol and gel fractions was studied also by Smith and Holt. They concluded that the difference which they observed in the stress-strain behavior of the fractions and whole rubber was due to differences in the rubber which persisted through vulcanization. The present paper deals with a study of the vulcanization characteristics of different fractions of purified rubber prepared by a method described in a previous paper. Also, for comparative purposes a similar study was made of the corresponding fractions of unpurified rubber. As the difference in molecular weight of some of the fractions obtained by the above method was rather small, a grouping of the fractions was made as follows :