Polymer, Vol.37, No.26, 5869-5875, 1996
Rheological Study of Cross-Linking and Gelation in Chlorobutyl Elastomer Systems
The multiple waveform rheological technique was used to study the crosslinking behaviour of a filled elastomeric system at various temperatures. The gel point could be precisely determined from a single experiment at each temperature using this technique. At the instant of gelation, the storage (G’) and loss (G") moduli scale with frequency in an identical manner, i.e. similar to omega(n). The relaxation exponent, n was found to be approximately constant (0.14) in the temperature range studied. Reported values of n for chemically crosslinking systems are typically higher; the low value in this case can be attributed to the high molecular weight of the prepolymer and the presence of iiller. The gel times at various temperatures were used to calculate an apparent activation energy of the curing reaction, which was found to be approximately 92 kJ mol(-1).
Keywords:TRANSFORM MECHANICAL SPECTROSCOPY;POLYCAPROLACTONE CRITICAL GELS;CURE REACTION;EPOXY-RESIN;VISCOELASTICITY;POINT;DEPENDENCE;TRANSITION;POLYMER;MODEL