Composition Analysis of Carbon Black-Filled Polychloroprene Rubber Compound by Thermo-Oxidative Degradation of the Compound

Abstract

This study describes a method for the composition analysis of the carbon black-filled polychloroprene rubber (CR) compound. Good agreement of the experimental data with the actual value was found. The method is based on three experiments namely thermogravimetric analysis, solvent extraction, and newly developed thermo and thermo-oxidative degradation of the vulcanized CR compound in the presence of nickel catalyst. Thermogravimetric analysis experiment gives the amount of inorganic material in the rubber compound. Solvent extraction gives the extractable amount. Thermo-oxidative degradation experiment gives the polymer amount. In thermo-oxidative degradation experiment, liberated chloride ion was titrated by Mohr’s method, and the amount of CR was back calculated from the chlorine content.