Styrene-butadiene rubber blend with EPDM

As a result of its saturated polymer backbone, EPDM is more resistant to oxygen, ozone, UV and heat than the low-cost commodity polydiene rubbers, such as natural rubber (NR), polybutadiene rubber (BR) and styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR). Therefore, the main use of EPD(M) is in outdoor applications, such as automotive sealing systems, window seals and roof sheeting, and in under-the-hood applications, such as coolant hoses. The main drawback of EPDM is its poor resistance to swelling in apolar fluids such as oil, making it inferior to high-performance elastomers, such as fluoro, acrylate and silicone elastomers in that respect. Over the last decade thermoplastic vulcanisates, produced via dynamic vulcanisation of blends of polypropylene (PP) and EPDM, have been commercialised, combining thermoplastic processability with rubber elasticity [8, 9]. 

These may be used for low hardness compounds in areas where impact abrasion is predominant. EPDM is at times referred as crackless rubber5 since it has high tear resistance. For producing high hardness compounds blends with natural rubber, styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) and high styrene resins are recommended. 

Addition of 2 to 5 phr of alkyl-phenol resins improve tackiness of EPDM stocks. In blends with other synthetic rubbers such as SBR, the co-curability is an important factor while designing the overall curing system while compounding. The important factors to be considered here is to synchronise the curing speed between two polymers, using studies in oscillating disk rheometer charts. However, blends with styrene-butadiene rubber do not have as much acid resistance as 100% EPDM. 

Figure 9.1. Phase-contrast micrographs of blends of chloroprene (CR), nitrile rubber (NBR), ethylene-propylene terpolymer (EPDM), and chlorobutyl rubber with styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR). The SBR phase appears white for the blends with CR and NBR, and dark for the blends with EPDM and chlorobutyl rubber. At low concentrations, the admixed rubber is the dispersed phase at higher concentrations, a phase inversion occurs and the admixed rubber becomes the matrix. (Callan et al, 1971.)...

The miscibility of natural rubber (NR) blends is one of the most important factors when designing NR products. For instance, when the NR is miscible with a dissimilar polymer on a molecular level, we may improve the properties of NR as a function of the composition of the polymer. This is significantly different from the design for immiscible NR blends, whose properties are greatly dependent upon the morphology of the blend but less so on the composition. In most cases, NR is immiscible with non-polar synthetic rubbers, i.e. NR/butadiene rubber (BR) with high c -1,4-butadiene units, NR/styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR), NR/butyl rubber (IIR), NR/silicone rubber (q)13,i4 NR/ethylene-propylene-diene rubber (EPDM). This means it is important to find miscible NR blends and to control the morphology of the immiscible NR blends in a rational way. In this chapter, properties of NR blends are described from the viewpoint of miscibility, i.e. the miscible blend of NR/BR and the immiscible blend of NR/SBR. 

Several strategies have been reported to improve the compatibility of NR/ EPDM blends, including the addition of a third component with low molar mass or a third polymer, sueh as polybutadiene (BR), styrene butadiene rubber (SBR), chlorinated rubber, chlorosulfonated PE or polyvinylchloride (PVQ, the incorporation of an accelerator moiety in the less unsaturated phase, and the functionalization of EPDM with maleic anhydride. ... 

Rubbers and elastomeric products for practical applications are usually blends of different elastomer types that develop specific domain morphologies at the microscale, and, therefore, they are a part of this chapter. The most common representatives of the ruhher family are natural ruhher (NR) and the synthetic polyhutadiene ruhher (PB). There are various copolymers of butadiene with styrene (styrene butadiene rubber, SBR) or acrylonitrile (acrylonitrile-butadiene rubber, NBR). Several elastomers have been developed for special purposes, such as EVA (ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer), PU (polyurethane), EPDM (ethylene propylene terpolymer), and siUcone rubber. 

Natural rubber was blended with synthetic nonpolar rubbers like styrene butadiene rubber (SBR), butadiene rubber (BR) and EPDM and polar rubbers like NBR and CR [12]. NR/SBR and NR/BR blends were compatible, while NR/EPDM, NR/NBR and NR/CR blends were incompatible. 

Examples of such compatibilized systems that have been studied include EPDM/PMMA blends compatibilized with EPDM- -MMA, polypropylene/polyethylene blends with EPM or EPDM, poly-styrene/nylon-6 blends with polystyrene/nylon-6 block copolymer, and poly(styrene-co-acrylonitrile)/ poly(styrene-co-butadiene) blends with butadiene rubber/PMMA block copolymer. 

More than 800 million pounds of EPM and EPDM polymers were produced in the United States in 2001. Their volume ranks these materials fourth behind styrene-1,3-butadiene copolymers, poly( 1,4-butadiene), and butyl rubber as synthetic rubbers. EPM and EPDM polymers have good chemical resistance, especially toward ozone. They are very cost-effective products since physical properties are retained when blended with large amounts of fillers and oil. Applications include automobile radiator hose, weather stripping, and roofing membrane. 

Other rubber systems have been commercially successful. Styrene block copolymers yield a HIPS product with a small particle size and provide high gloss. A mixed rubber system consisting of styrene-butadiene block rubber and/or ethylene-propylene diene modified (EPDM) rubber can be blended with the polybutadiene to form bimodal rubber particle size distribution for a... 

Thermoplastic polyolefin (TPO) is a generic name that refers to polyolefin blends usually consisting of some fraction of polypropylene (PP), polyethylene (PE) or polypropylene block copolymer (PP-b-EP or BCPP ), and a thermoplastic olefinic rubber, with or without a mineral reinforcing filler such as talc or wollastonite. Common rubbers include ethylene propylene rubber (EPR), EPDM rubber, ethylene-octene (EO) copolymer mbber, ethylene-butadiene (EB), and styrene-ethylene-butadiene-styrene (SEBS) block copolymer rubbers. Currently, there are a great variety of commercial polypropylene homopolymers, PP block copolymers, and olefinic rubbers available to make a wide range of TPO blends with densities ranging from 0.92 to 1.1. 

There are many other commercial examples of polymer blends. Polycarbonate can be blended with an acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene terpolymer to give a PC-ABS blend. Polypropylene impact can be improved by the addition of ethylene-propylene copolymers, which are sometimes called ethylene-propylene-rubber (EPR). Ethylene, propylene, and a diene monomer (EPDM), such as ethylidene norbomene, is also used to impart impact and flexibiUty to polypropylene. 

Blending methyl methacrylate-butadiene-styrene copolymer with poly(vinyl chloride) for instance was shown to decelerate the dehydrochlorination (leading to discoloration). The gel content, surface energy, and the spectroscopic characteristics of the blend was altered by the presence of the seccHid polymer [158]. In ethylene-propylene-diene rubber EPDM where the third monomer is ethylene-2-norbomene (NB), the photo-oxidation rate as measured by the accumulation of typical products such as hydroperoxides, varied linearly with the NB content [159]. The same held true for peroxide-crosslinked compounds of the same EPDM except that the linear relationship was found between the relative carbonyl absorbance on photoxidation and the amoiuit of peroxide used to crosslink the material... 

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