Abstract
The vulcanization reaction of ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer (EVM) rubber is fast, resulting in poor processing safety. EVM is often filled with flame-retardant fillers as insulating or sheathing material for wires and cables. Herein, the effects of flame-retardant magnesium hydroxide (Mg(OH)2), aluminum hydroxide (Al(OH)3) and of the traditional reinforcing fillers carbon black (CB) and silicon dioxide (SiO2) on the vulcanization kinetics of EVM were investigated. The vulcanization characteristics showed that the scorch time (T10) of the unfilled EVM (KB), SiO2/EVM, Mg(OH)2/EVM, and Al(OH)3/EVM composites was about 1.75 min. T10 of the CB/EVM composite was 2.22 min. Compared with KB, the activation energy (E a ) increased by about 15 kJ/mol for CB/EVM composites and by about 5 kJ/mol for SiO2/EVM, Mg(OH)2/EVM and Al(OH)3/EVM composites. The results indicate that CB delays the vulcanization time of EVM rubber, slows down the rate of vulcanization reaction and improves the safety of vulcanization. The addition of SiO2, Mg(OH)2 and Al(OH)3 has little effect on the vulcanization reaction. The mechanical properties show that CB/EVM is more uniformly vulcanized and has the best mechanical properties with a tensile strength of 17.61 MPa and elongation at break of 404.58 %. Mg(OH)2/EVM and Al(OH)3/EVM samples have prominent vulcanization non-uniformity resulting in poor mechanical properties.
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Author contributions: All the authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this submitted manuscript and approved submission.
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Research funding: None declared.
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Declaration of competing interest: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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Data availability statement: Research date are not shared.
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Supplementary Material
This article contains supplementary material (https://doi.org/10.1515/ipp-2023-4365).
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Articles in the same Issue
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Mechanical and dielectric properties of Cissus Quadrangularis fiber-reinforced epoxy/TiB2 hybrid composites
- Numerical investigation of pressure drop within isothermal capillary rheometry for viscous and viscoelastic fluids
- The effect of extensional viscosity on the core structure of fiber orientation for injection-molded fiber composites
- Numerical analysis of a new mound-shaped extensional mixing element designed based on a sine curve in single-screw extrusion
- Effects of polymeric microcapsules on self-healing composites reinforced with carbon fibers: a comparative study
- Vulcanization kinetics and mechanical properties of filled ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer rubber composites
- Experimental analysis of localized hybridization by means of adding woven polyester strip
- Molecular design of soluble poly(amide-imide) with high char yield for flame retardant epoxy resin
- Investigation of erosion wear performance and mechanism of mold materials