EFFECTS OF OV-POSS NANOPARTICLES ON THE VULCANIZATION KINETICS OF NATURAL RUBBER COMPOUNDS

Polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes (POSSs) are new-generation additives, which can provide improved properties of polymer matrices due to physical and/or chemical interactions between the polymer molecules and their reactive sites. In the case of rubber-based polymeric systems, POSSs are also able to accompany a vulcanization reaction. This study aimed to investigate the effect of octavinyl functionalized POSS (OV-POSS) on the sulphur vulcanization of a model natural rubber (NR) based compound. The reaction kinetics was studied using various kinetic approaches based on moving die rheometry and differential scanning calorimetry. Rheometric data was evaluated using a common non-linear cure kinetic model, called the Isayev and Deng Model. The Kissinger, Flynn-Wall-Ozawa and Crane Models were used to evaluate the thermal data for curing reactions. All the models were found to be able to analyze the vulcanization kinetics of OV-POSS containing NR-based rubber compounds as well as the effect of the OV-POSS incorporation.