LAUSR

The influence of rubber devulcanization by microwaves in the reversion behavior is still modestly explored in the literature. The reversion occurs due to thermal degradation of unstable crosslinkings formed during the vulcanization process. This phenomenon results in poor final mechanical properties of the artifacts. In this work, some formulations based on natural rubber (NR) with the incorporation of NR devulcanized by microwaves at different exposure times to the microwaves were vulcanized by compression molding at the same temperature and time used for the study of their vulcanization characteristics, in order to correlate the properties obtained and understand the influence of the reversion on the mechanical properties. The results showed that levels of devulcanization/degradation of the recycled phase, as well as the additional heating time influenced on the behavior of reversion and, consequently, on the mechanical properties. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2017, 134, 45325.