Stress-strain relationships in uniaxial extension of high cis-1,4-polyisoprene networks with different molecular weight precursors

Equilibrium stress-strain relationships in uniaxial extension for high cis-1,4-polyisoprene (Shell IR 307) networks were obtained by extrapolation of relaxation measurements to infinite time through a BKZ constitutive equation. Three series of networks were investigated, each series being characterized by its polymer precursor molecular weight. Influence of crosslinking density was studied through varying amounts of dicumyl peroxide as crosslinking agent. These results were used to test Flory and Erman's recent molecular elasticity theory of imperfect networks with constraints on junctions. It was shown that this later theory treating entanglements as restrictions on junction fluctuations could be reasonably used to characterize network topology. A universal value of 0.50 for the interpenetration parameter I is confirmed and an interpretation of parameter ζ in terms of network inhomogeneity is tentatively given.