Sustainable recycling of butyl rubbers

Abstract

This investigation presents a deep examination on the behavior of radiation effects on pristine (IIR) and halogenated butyl (IIR-Cl, IIR-Br) rubbers. The retrieving these materials is appropriately achieved by the radiolysis fragmentation of main chains that initiates the structural modifications based on the radiation susceptibilities of studied rubbers. The γ-irradiation process causes oxidation under air atmosphere and the effects are revealed by chemiluminescence and FTIR characterizations. The radiolysis on butyl rubbers is conducted onto a specific fragmentation, which allows the two antagonistic processes: oxidation and recombination. During the γ-radiolysis in rubbers is revealed the influence of the electronegativity possesed by the halogen atoms presented in polymer structures, determining the values of activation energy for their oxidative degradation. The γ-processing suggests an ecological procedure for an appropriate preparation of blends or for the recycling as composite products. The calculated activation energies place the polymers in the following stability order of IIR<IIR-Cl<IIR-Br.