Source Year: 1996

Oils and resins are widely used in rubber industries to improve or control the mechanical properties, the viscoelastic behaviour, the processability and the tackiness of a rubber compound. Very few fundamental studies have been reported on the function and the mecahnism of oils and resins in a rubber mixture. Oil and resin distribution in each phase of an immiscible binary elastomer blend was studied by measuring the change in thermodynamical parameters, such as glass transition temperature, the melting point of crystallines, and the heat at melt of each polymer component. Several independent approaches give consistent results. It was found that aromatic oil was favourably distributed to the polystyrene-butadiene (SBR) phase of an SBR/NR blend. Similarly, unequal distribution of resin in a blend was observed for a natural resin (rosin) and a petroleum resin.