Rubbers can be found into various fields of applications like aerospace, sports equipment or tires. Elasticity, solvent permeability and stress durability are the main characteristics targeted for these materials. In order to achieve such properties, polymer chains must be cross-linked to form a network. However, irreversibility of the vulcanization, which is the main method employed industrially, generates a large amount of waste rubber. Additionally, there is no viable method for recycling these materials. To tackle this issue, various dynamic linkages such as Diels-Alder reaction, metal coordination or hydrogen-bonding have been successfully used on different polymers to create reversible networks.<br/><br/>We will report a new method to synthesize polybutadiene and polyisoprene networks based on reversible covalent bonds. High molar masses polymers were first chemically degraded in order to obtain liquid/viscous polymers. Then, polymers chain ends or polymeric backbones were modified by furan moieties to generate reversible networks through Diels-Alder reactions. Thermal stability and elastic properties of the formed reversible networks were analyzed and impact of the chain length, crosslinking density and recyclability of the networks will be particularly discussed.<br/>

Reversible crosslinking of polydienes: A new approach toward recyclability of elastomers

2019 Spring National Meeting

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