Radiation Crosslinking of Chlorinated Poly(Isobutylene-<i>co</i>-Isoprene) with Polyfunctional Monomers

Abstract

Abstract It is well known that poly(isobutylene-co-isoprene) (butyl rubber, IIR) is degraded by irradiation. However, we demonstrated that IIR, after chlorination (CIIR) crosslinks by electron beam (EB) irradiation. The gel dose for CIIR was 3.8 kGy. To avoid scission of the main chain, various polyfunctional monomers were added for crosslinking of CIIR at lower doses. It was found that trimethylolpropane trimethacrylate (TMPT) is the most effective accelerator for crosslinking of CIIR at a lower dose. The tensile strength of EB crosslinked by CIIR increases almost linearly with increasing TMPT content.