Devulcanization of waste tire rubber by microwave procedure and recycling by incorporation in a thermoset resin

NOURREDINE AIT HOCINE; K AOUDIA; M A COSTANTINO; ASARO LUCIA; MICHEL GRATTON; S AZEM; V PETTATIN

Seville

Congreso; Fifth International Symposium Frontiers in Polymer Science; 2017

This study focused on the recycling of Waste Tire Rubber (WTR) by incorporating it in a thermoset resin. Thus, WTR was firstly grinded into powder, at ambient temperature, with a disc mill and, then, microwave electromagnetic energy was used to devulcanize this powder. The influence of the treatment microwave energy on the devulcanization ratio was investigated. FTIR analysis revealed that rupture of Sulfur-Sulfur (S-S) and Carbon-Sulfur (C-S) bonds have occurred during the treatment. Swelling analysis showed that the microwave treatment can lead to a very significant degree of devulcanization. The Ground Tire Rubber (GTR) and the Devulcanized Ground Tire Rubber (DGTR) were then separately used to prepare epoxy based composites. It appeared that epoxy composites filled with DGTR have better mechanical properties than those filled with untreated GTR. This result agrees with scanning electron microscopy observations which highlighted a better interface coherence between DGTR and epoxy. A complementary analysis pointed out a linear relationship between the rubber modulus and the number of crosslink per chain.