AbstractIntermittent and continuous stress relaxation measurements have been utilized to follow the oxidative degradation of vulcanizates of natural rubber, and of synthetically prepared polybutadienes. Vulcanizates were prepared by exposing samples to high‐energy electrons. For natural rubber, only oxidative scission reactions were detected. Emulsion polymerized polybutadiene and allcis1,4‐polybutadiene exhibited both oxidative scission and oxidative crosslinking. With sulfur vulcanizates of these elastomers, there is superposed on the oxidation reactions a continued vulcanization caused by remaining curing ag
展开▼