A new approach to curing vinyl-containing polymers such as polybutadiene, for elastomer manufacturing applications has been explored. Thiol-ene chemistry, a form of “click chemistry” involves the radical addition of thiols across carbon–carbon double bonds. Using an incremental approach, various polyvinyls, thiols and peroxides were used to make cured elastomer materials. The mechanical and molecular properties of the resulting cured and un-cured materials were studied. Using this data, the architecture of the elastomer systems was modeled and new paths forward were selected. The benefits of thiol-ene chemistry include: low to no risk at the occupational health level, moisture insensitivity, and ease of handling during preparation. This work demonstrates that a viable alternative to current ESOH-hazardous cross-linking techniques based on isocyanates is possible using thiol-ene chemistry.

Environmentally benign thiol-ene cure systems as replacements for isocyanates in polybutadienes

250th National Meeting (2015)

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