Monitoring of vulcanization process using measurement of electrical properties during linear increasing temperature

Abstract

The article presents the possibilities of diagnostics of irreversible chemical reaction vulcanization in case of laboratory prepared rubber mixture based on styrene - butadiene (SBR) using measurements of selected physical parameters. Our work is focused on the measurement of current rheologic parameters (torque at defined shear deformation) and selected electrical parameters (DC conductivity) during linear increasing temperature. The individual steps of vulcanization are well identified by means of measurements of rheologic parameters, while significantly affecting the value of the electrical conductivity. The value of the electrical conductivity increases with the increasing of rate of the crossbridging reactions during vulcanization. The rate of the heating affects both types of measurements. When the rate of the heating is increasing the temperature of the beginning of networking step of reactions and also the rate of vulcanization grow. The sensitivity of the both types of measurements allows a good mathematical description of the temperature dependence of the torque and the electric conductivity during the vulcanization of rubber mixtures based on SBR.