Effect of Extending Oil on Viscoelastic Behavior of Elastomers

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Abstract
For a number of years, oil-extended elastomers have been in commercial use. The obvious advantage is to dilute elastomers with less expensive oil. In addition, oil improves the processability of the elastomer. This enables the use of a higher-molecular-weight polymer, which, in turn, yields mechanical properties comparable or superior to those of a lower-molecular-weight polymer without oil extension. The viscoelastic properties of the oil-elastomer mixtures at a wide range of concentration and temperature offer information useful for understanding elastomer processability. The viscoelastic properties of such systems are also most sensitive manifestations of the polymer chain structure and, therefore, they represent fundamental characteristics of a given elastomer sample. In this work, two samples of ethylene-propylene copolymer differing in chain structure were selected. The oil-elastomer mixtures were prepared for polymer concentration in the range of 2.5–100%. The viscoelastic properties have been measured in the temperature range of 30–150°C. The frequency range was 10−1–102 rad/s and in some cases −2–102 rad/ s. The superposition principles have been examined with these data for both the temperature and concentration dependence.

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