Manufacturing and characterization of materials obtained by reactivated/devulcanized Ground Tire Rubber (GTR) blended with Styrene Butadiene Rubber (SBR)

Abstract

Ground tire rubber (GTR) was vulcanized in different composition with styrene butadiene rubber (SBR). Ground tire rubbers used in this project are i) not devulcanized (nd) ii) mechanically devulcanized (dm) iii) chemical-mechanical devulcanized (dcm) and iv) microwave devulcanized which consists of three types; chemical-mechanical (dmw), car (dmw C) and truck (dmw T). The mechanical properties of each sample were investigated. Properties like tensile strength, elongation at break, young modulus, hardness, 100% and 200% modulus are observed. The evolution of tensile strength, young modulus, and hardness showed that as the GTR content increased, the properties increased. The elongation at break reduced as the GTR content increased. Most of the samples showed deterioration in properties as they reached 50 phr. SBR-GTR chemical mechanical devulcanized showed the best performance in terms of properties. Crosslink density was calculated and compared between each sample. It is observed that as the GTR content increased, the crosslink density decreased. This proportionate with the result of elongation at break. Thermo gravimetric analysis was performed to observe the thermal stability of the samples for 20, 40 and 50 phr GTR. Scanning electron microscopy was also carried out to find the coherency and homogeneity for 20 phr of GTR