ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT: Elastomers exposed to liquids during application, frequently undergo various interactions. Amongst the most critical phenomena sorption of certain components of surrounding media and loss of elastomer additives has to be mentioned because of possibly negative impact on the elastomer material. Therefore, correlation of detailed material composition with mechanical properties is worth exploring as general conclusions on the long term stability can be derived. As the sorption of liquids follows the mechanisms of diffusion, knowledge on diffusion behavior of components in elastomers is very valuable. To quantitatively describe diffusion of mineral oils, a storage procedure in which elastomer specimens vertically dip in a test liquid only at the bottom side is described in this work. Analyses via thermal desorption of volatile components followed by gas chromatography and mass spectrometry of consecutive elastomer pieces along the diffusion axis allows the generation of concentration profiles of elastomer additives and absorbed mineral oil. It can clearly be shown that the swelling potential of different mineral oils is reflected by the diffusion behavior of these oils. Therefore, the procedure provides detailed information on diffusion processes and thus facilitates the prediction of lifetime.
