Microbiological Attack on the Sulfur Atoms

It can be seen from Sections 4.2.1 to 4.2.4 that four generic categories of difference are available to research scientists that can be used as the basis for a devulcanisation process. Some processes mainly use just one mechanism, hnt it is often the case that in order to develop an optimised system that has the potential to be used commercially, more than one process is nsed, and often all three of the mechanisms that are described above are employed. Processes of this type are included in Section 4.5 and employ shear and a degree of heat, using either a two-roll mill or an extrnder, and chemical agents. 

As will become apparent in the sections helow, these inherent differences between the bonds in the rnhher molecules and those in the sulfur crosslinks are available to be nsed, but unfortunately they are not so great as to make the task of selectivity easy, and the challenge has always been to develop a process that finds the correct balance between efficient destruction of the crosslinks whilst inflicting minimal damage to the rubber molecules. 

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