ABSTRACT
Elastomeric compounds are widely used in the minerals extraction industry for a wide range of different transportation applications. Focusing on the inner linings of pump and hoses, for oil sands transporting systems, polychloroprene rubber is generally used. Given the highly abrasive nature of the slurry, which includes sand and rocks, these materials are subject to high erosion rates. To reduce the erosion phenomena, a method to develop a self-healable and recyclable polychloroprene rubber is being investigated where dynamic disulfide bonds are introduced as part of the structure of a cross linker (liquid polysulfide polymer, Thiokol LP3) coupled to the polymer backbone via thermally initiated thiol-ene reaction. In this work isothermal differential scanning calorimetry analysis is reported, and the kinetic parameters of the thiol-ene based curing reaction are determined through the application of the Kamal autocatalytic model and compared to those obtained from the conventional metal oxide based cross-linking system.
