Abstract
We studied the structure of polybutadiene rubber (BR) crosslinked with zinc diacrylate (ZDA) to elucidate the structure of the high crosslink density BR using a contrast variation small-angle neutron scattering (CV-SANS) method. SPP(q), SZZ(q) and SPZ(q), which correspond to the partial scattering functions of the self-correlation of BR, the self-correlation of ZDA aggregates and the cross-correlation between BR and ZDA aggregates, respectively, were successfully evaluated using CV-SANS. A model function assuming a hierarchical structure consisting of spheres with broad size distributions was used to describe the SZZ(q), and the careful analysis of SPZ(q) revealed the existence of a HC-BR layer around the ZDA aggregates owing to an inhomogeneous crosslinked structure in the BR matrix. This is the first time quantitative structural analysis of the HC-BR layer in this rubber material has been performed. In addition, the network structure of the HC-BR layer in the rubber matrix is responsible for the high mechanical modulus of the rubber.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Dr Young-Soo Han and Dr Tae-Hwan Kim of the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute for their kind support in the SANS measurements at HANARO 40m SANS, Dr Hiroyasu Masunaga of the Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute for his kind support in the SAXS measurements at SPring-8 BL03XU (Proposal Nos. 2011B 7260 and 2012A 7210) and Dr Yoshio Suzuki and Dr Akihisa Takeuchi of the Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute and Dr Yuya Shinohara of Tokyo University for their kind support in the USAXS measurements at SPring-8 BL20XU (Proposal Nos. 2011B 1244 and 2012A 1686).
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Mashita, R., Kishimoto, H., Inoue, R. et al. Structure analyses of polybutadiene rubber crosslinked with unsaturated carboxylate using contrast variation small-angle neutron scattering. Polym J 48, 239–245 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/pj.2015.102
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/pj.2015.102
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