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Title Recent advances in the devulcanization technologies of industrially relevant sulfur-vulcanized elastomers
ID_Doc 20483
Authors Dorigato, A; Rigotti, D; Fredi, G
Title Recent advances in the devulcanization technologies of industrially relevant sulfur-vulcanized elastomers
Year 2023
Published Advanced Industrial And Engineering Polymer Research, 6, 3
DOI 10.1016/j.aiepr.2022.11.003
Abstract The interesting thermomechanical properties of rubber materials have favored their widespread application in many fields, with a consequent increase in the amount of worn synthetic and natural rubber discarded every year. However, the complex three-dimensional molecular structure of rubber complicates the recycling and degradation process, and the current rubber waste management measures (i.e., landfilling, incineration, rubber grinding) are found to be unsustainable or substantially inadequate. On the other hand, devulcanization technologies, thanks to the selective cleavage of crosslinks, represent a sustainable and feasible approach to obtain a material that can be reintroduced into the rubber value chain or reused in novel eco-sustainable thermoplastic or elastomeric blends. Hence, this review pro-vides an overview of the current rubber waste management techniques and devulcanization technologies, highlighting the underlying devulcanization mechanisms, describing the pros and cons of each method, and presenting some literature examples. Since most of the research on devulcanization has been made on waste tires, this review mainly focuses on the most widely used rubber classes for this application, i.e., natural rubber (NR) and styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR), and the most common vulcanization technique, i.e., sulfur vulcanization. Considering the importance of the application of a circular economy approach, this work also reviews the applications of rubber devulcanizates, focusing on how devulcanized rubber can be compounded with different polymeric matrices to develop eco-sustainable polymer blends with suitable physical properties.(c) 2022 Kingfa Scientific and Technological Co. Ltd. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co. Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons. org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Author Keywords Rubber; Elastomers; Recycling; Devulcanization; Circular economy
Index Keywords Index Keywords
Document Type Other
Open Access Open Access
Source Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI)
EID WOS:001129904400001
WoS Category Materials Science, Multidisciplinary; Materials Science, Composites; Polymer Science
Research Area Materials Science; Polymer Science
PDF https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aiepr.2022.11.003
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