Elastomeric, characteristics vulcanization

The thermoplastic elastomers (TPEs) concern large industrial and commercial fields, as well as academic and applied research. Often the TPEs are considered as being only an important part of the block copolymers, but they are present in many other polymeric materials, as clearly shown by Holden et al [1,2] and Rader [3-5]. They are characterized by a set of properties inherent to block and graft copolymers, different blends, and some vulcanized materials. More than 7000 Chemical Abstracts entries directly concern TPEs and in about 12500 other publications they are closely associated to other issues (SciFinderScholar) [6]. Most of these references describe materials, which associate elastomeric recovery and thermoplastic properties however some products exhibit characteristics and properties, which completely differ from those of conventional TPEs. 

TPEs a good elastomeric recovery and the properties of thermoplastic polymers. Their preparation, structure, and properties were carefully analyzed by Coran and Patel [38]. Their morphology has many common characteristics with the thermoplastic elastomeric polyolefins and involves a highly vulcanized elastomeric phase uniformly distributed in a melt-processable matrix Rader [5] compares it to a raisin pie . The vulcanization of the elastomer takes place when in a molten plastic. The crosslinking improves several TPE properties behavior with respect to temperature, resistance to swelling in fluids, compression and tension set, creep and stress relaxation. 

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