Correlations between Structure of Elastomers and the Mechanism of their Degradation by Ozone

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Abstract
Ozone cracking is treated as a special case of stress corrosion. The correlation between delayed fracturing, stress and strain is explained in terms of changing crack geometry. Structural relationships have been studied in the region of minimum, critical stress. Two groups of ozone sensitive polymers can be distinguished: in highly ozone sensitive materials cracks are initiated at very low values of stored elastic energy, while initiation in the more resistant butyl rubbers and EPT rubbers occurs only at much higher values of stored elastic energy. The rate of cracking in neoprene is shown to be much less stress sensitive than the corresponding rate in other polydiene rubbers. It is conjectured that this favorable property of neoprene depends on the rheological behaviour of the ozonized surface layer.

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