Recycling Natural Rubber Vulcanizates through Mechanochemical Devulcanization

Sulfur-cured gum natural rubber vulcanizates were devulcanized using two different concentrations of diallyl disulfide. The devulcanization process was performed at $110^{\circ}C$ min in an open two-roll cracker-cum-mixing mill. Natural rubber vulcanizates having various sulfur/accelerator ratios were used to study the cleavage of monosulfide, disulfide, and polysulfide bonds. The properties of devulcanized natural rubber increased upon increasing the disulfide concentration and the mechanical properties of the revulcanized natural rubber increased upon decreasing the sulfur content in the original rubber vulcanizates. The scorch time and the maximum state of cure both increased when the ground vulcanizates were treated with higher amounts of disulfide. TGA and DMA were conducted to study the effects of the devulcanization on the thermal stability and the $T_g$ behavior of the vulcanizates. SEM analysis was conducted to study how the failure mechanism was affected by the devulcanization process. It was possible to recover $70-80\%$ of the original gum rubber properties by using this process. From IR spectroscopic analysis, we observed that the oxidation of the main chains did not occur during high-temperature milling.