Stress Softening of NR Reinforced by In Situ Prepared Zinc Dimethacrylate

The stress softening effect of nature rubber (NR) reinforced by in situ prepared zinc dimethacrylate (ZDMA) was studied. Degree of stress softening effect (Ds) in the 4th stress-strain cycle of the NR with 10 phr (parts per hundreds of rubber) ZDMA was only 2.23 (strain = 100%), whereas it reached to 59.98 at 50 phr ZDMA (strain = 200%). The stress softening effects of carbon black filled into NR, and compared with the ZDMA effect, was also studied here. Mooney-Rivlin semiempirical equation was introduced here to analysis the stress-strain behavior of the NR vulcanize filled with in situ prepared ZDMA, and the results showed that the ZDMA/NR system has an obvious Payne effect which is in good agreement with the stress softening effect. Crosslink density analysis indicated a high ionic crosslink density in the NR filled with high content ZDMA, which contributed to the low elastic recovery of the stress softening. (C) 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 123:833-841, 2012