Grafting of Waste Rubber

Abstract

Abstract By the redox method and by gamma irradiation, it was possible to graft ethyl acrylate on to granulate of waste rubber. The quantity of grafted monomer was larger when gamma irradiation was used. When combining ethyl acrylate with 5-methylene-2-norbornene in the redox system with the intention to introduce more double bonds in the grafted granulate, it was found that norbornene does not participate in the reaction and that it even prevents the grafting of ethyl acrylate. This is just a part of extensive experimental work which was done with the intention to chemically modify the rubber granulate for the purpose of enlarging the quantity of waste rubber to be possibly reused in the rubber industry.