The degradation behavior of vulcanized EPDM in ozone water (O
3(aq)) or ozone/chlorine water (O
3/Cl
2(aq)) was investigated and characterized by ATR-FT-IR, GPC, and EPMA analysis.
The superficial layer of vulcanized EPDM was observed to be disrupted due to oxidative shortening of EPDM polymer chains by O
3(aq) or O
3/Cl
2(aq) Furthermore, EPDM treated in O
3/Cl
2(aq) contained a higher proportion of decomposition products than that treated in O
3/Cl
2(aq). This may be a result of the synergetic effect on acceleration of oxidation by chlorine and reaction with radical oxygen generated from O
3/Cl
2(aq).
As an additional experiment, degradation behavior of carbon black- and silica-compounded EPDM's in O
3/Cl
2(aq) was investigated. In this case, the latter material was less damaged by oxidation than the former one.
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