| Abstract: | Near-equilibrium stress–strain measurements have been carried out on ternary rubber vulcanizates. The effect of variation of the butyl rubber content on the elastic behaviour of the ternary rubber vulcanizates has been studied. It has been found that butyl rubber (IIR) is less sensitive to the vulcanization system used than either natural rubber (NR) or styrene–butadiene rubber (SBR). One can obtain a partially crosslinked system with an IIR phase embedded in the crosslinked matrix of NR and SBR. The role played by carbon black during mixing of the ternary blend has been investigated. The Mooney–Rivlin relationship was used to describe the behaviour of the ternary rubber matrix. The constants 2C1 and 2C2 have been calculated by use of the strain-amplification factor and the total crosslink density of the ternary rubber–carbon black systems has been investigated. The data have been evaluated in terms of the molecular theories of rubber elasticity. The elastic behaviour was found to be intermediate between the affine and phantom limits of the theory. © of SCI. |
