Thermogravimetric analysis of two Chinese used tires

Two Chinese used tire samples' components have been measured by using TGA technique. In general, a tire contains approximately 65% organic materials, 32% carbon black and less than 4% ash. The most commonly used tire rubbers, such as natural rubber (NR), styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) and polybutadiene rubber (BR), were also investigated separately under the same conditions. NR is distinguished from BR or SBR in the tires' TG/DTG curves because that the NR in tires decompose mainly at lower temperature than SBR or BR. The similar TG/DTG patterns of SBR and BR result in a difficulty in identification of these two types of tire rubber. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.