The Study on Cure Characteristics and Physical Properties of Ethylene Propylene Diene Monomer Blended with Recycled Nitrile Gloves (EPDM/NBRr)

Most of the polymeric materials blending together with recycled waste rubber powder attributed to the economical and processing advantages for product specification. Therefore, the effect of curing characteristics, hardness and crosslink density of ethylene propylene diene monomer/recycled acrylonitrile butadiene rubber (EPDM/NBRr) blends were studied. The EPDM/NBRr blends were prepared at four different compositions (95/5, 85/15, 75/25 and 65/35) with two different sizes (S1: 250-500μm and S2: 3-10cm) of NBRr. Results indicated that the scorch time t2, cure time t90, and maximum torque (MH) for both EPDM/NBRr (S1) and EPDM/NBRr (S2) decreased, but the minimum torque (ML) increased.The increase of NBRr content in EPDM/NBRr leads to the increase in hardness and consequently decreases the crosslinking density of the blends. The incorporation of 15phr of S1 recycled NBRr appeared to better overall properties.