Novel Bifunctional Additive for Rubbers: Cyclic Butylene Terephthalate Oligomer

Abstract

In this paper the effect of a novel bifunctional additive [cyclic butylene terephthalate (CBT)] was investigated on the rheological, curing and mechanical properties of natural rubber (NR), styrene butadiene rubber (SBR), oil extended styrene butadiene rubber (oSBR), acrylonitrile butadiene rubber (NBR) and ethylene propylene diene rubber (EPDM). Results showed, that CBT acted as an effective lubricant, decreasing the viscosity of the raw mixtures significantly. Furthermore CBT recrystallized upon cooling and acted as semi-active filler, slightly increased the mechanical properties of the tested non strain-crystallizable synthetic rubbers. The polarity of the rubber matrix had a strong effect on the adhesion between rubber and CBT, the higher the polarity of the rubber, the better the adhesion between the two phases was.