Migration of mineral oil in elastomers

This work describes a newly introduced experimental procedure to quantify the diffusion progress of mineral oils locally resolved in NBR. Diffusion of reference oils IRM 901, IRM 902 and IRM 903 in NBR with various acrylonitrile contents was investigated. Classical sorption experiments were performed as a basic characterization and compared to the newly introduced method. Here, elastomer specimens are only being dipped with the bottom in a relatively small reservoir of mineral oil. This provides a determination of locally resolved concentration profiles of mineral oils, and the calculation of diffusion coefficients. These diffusion coefficients follow the same trends like those determined via sorption experiments. Despite differences in the absolute numbers, activation energies of diffusion can be applied as a suitable measure for the compatibility of elastomers and fluids.