Dynamic mechanical properties of polybutadiene (BR) and ethylenepropylene rubber with a wide range of degree of crosslinking were studied. Dynamic shear modulus (
G′) of BR increases with increasing the degree of crosslinking, while
G′ of EP rubber decreases. This result of EP rubber is observed up to 70°C and frequency of over 3 cps.
Since it is believed that the decrease of
G′ can be attributed to the effect of chain entanglement, the molecular weight between entanglements (
Me) was calculated from the
G′ on the base′s of theories of rubber elasticity.
From this calculation, EP rubber shows a large
Me value. This is probably due to a small amount of aggregation based on the blockness in a long -(CH
2)n- sequence.
This result may suggest that the measurment of dynamic modulus as a function of degree of crosslinking is a good method for evaluating the blockness.
In addition, it is found that experimental values of log
G′/G60 (static modulus) is propotional to the average molecular weight between crosslinks in the network.
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