Curing characteristics and kinetics of EPDM and EOC compounds in co-vulcanization as blend

Possibility of co-vulcanization of ethylene octene copolymer (EOC) and ethylene propylene diene terpolymer (EPDM) molecules was studied by assessing the curing characteristic and crosslinking kinetics of EOC and EPDM compounds. Regarding curing, the curing characteristics, cure rate index, and the torque difference (M_H ? M_L) of the EPDM compound are quite similar to those of the EOC compounds at the curing temperature of 180 °C, especially when the EOC octene comonomer content is 5.9 or 9.7 mol %. The kinetic parameters E _a and k were analyzed. The study showed that EOC with 9.7 mol % octene comonomer content is very suitable for blending with EPDM, as it has crosslinking kinetics similar to the EPDM. This observation confirms the possibility of chemical co-crosslinking at EPDM–EOC interfaces, especially at the curing temperature of 180 °C. Differential scanning calorimetry and dynamic mechanical analysis were also used to assess interfacial crosslinking. The lowest activation energy of vulcanization is found for the EPDM/EOC blend with 9.7 mol % octene comonomer contents. Furthermore, chemical co-crosslinking in combination with chain flexibility in the EPDM/EOC blend with 9.7 mol % octene comonomer contents give lower tan δ at room temperature than for the blends with octene comonomer contents of 5.9 and 16.9 mol %. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019 , 136, 47613.