The Effects of Proöxygenic Substances on Reclaimed Rubber
Abstract It might at first be assumed that antioxygenic compounds originally present in scrap rubber used in the manufacture of the reclaimed rubber would be sufficient to explain the extraordinary resistance of the reclaimed rubber to the action of proöxygenic compounds. It is, however, highly improbable that these antioxygenic compounds survive caustic soda treatment at 190° C. On the other hand, a crude-rubber mixture, even when protected by an antioxygenic compound, never shows such great resistance to proöxygenic compounds as that shown by the reclaimed-rubber vulcanizates described in the present work. It seems probable, therefore, that this insensitivity of reclaimed rubber to proöxygenic compounds, both during plasticization and during aging after vulcanization, is in some way connected with the actual chemical structure of the reclaimed rubber itself.