Zinkoxid und Magnesiumoxid als ktivatoren der Vulkanisation -Ein neuer Vergleich, Teil 1

Zinc oxide is a widely used compound in the rubber industry due to the excellent properties that it shows as activator and, consequently, its role in the mechanism of accelerated sulphur vulcanisation has been extensively studied. Due to the increased concern about its environmental effects, several research studies have been carried out in order to substitute it with different metal oxides such as MgO. The aim of this study was to explore the effect of the activator system in order to minimise the environmental impact of the rubber goods. This paper is divided in two parts. In this first part, the influence of different mixtures of ZnO and MgO on the vulcanisation of natural rubber has been investigated. In the second part of this study, model compound vulcanisation has been used to study the role of MgO in the mechanism to gain a better understanding of the differences shown in the first part.