Rubber-based acrylate resins: An alternative for tire recycling and carbon neutral thermoset materials design

Rubber is a widely available potential carbon neutral resource, both as native natural rubber state and as vulcanized state in waste tires. Herein, we describe a model synthesis of acrylate telechelic natural rubber (AcTNR) oligomers and the use of such oligomers to prepare novel acrylate resins. AcTNR oligomers are synthesized according to a two steps procedure implying a controlled C=C bond's scission of high-molecular-weight natural rubber and a further chain ends functionalization. The molar mass of the resulting AcTNR is found to be 2300 g/mol as determined by H-1 NMR. AcTNR-based resins are then prepared by mixing AcTNR oligomers with various reactive diluents (RD) such as styrene, 1,4-butanediol ether, tri(propylene glycol) diacrylate, 1,6-hexanediol diacrylate, trimethylolpropane triacrylate (AcTNR:RD weight ratio 7:3). These bio-based resins are afterward cured in the presence of methyl ethyl ketone peroxide as initiator and cobalt octoate as accelerator at 80 degrees C and postcured at 120 degrees C. The cured resins offer a wide range of mechanical, thermal, and dynamic-mechanical performances. This approach could be extended to rubber tire wastes. (c) 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016, 133, 43548.