Crosslink Density of Peroxide Cured TPV

EPDM/PP model compounds were dynamically vulcanized by use of varying amounts of an organic peroxide and a trifunctional methacrylate to produce thermoplastic vulcanizates (TPV) materials with different properties. Tensile strength and ultimate elongation as well as compression set data of these materials are comparable to existing commercial TPV products. Although, crosslinking of the elastomer phase is the most important step during the production process, there is a lack of suitable test methods until now to determine the cross link density precisely. Therefore, a new test method, Temperature Scanning Stress Relaxation (TSSR) was examined to determine the crosslink density of the EPDM – phase. The results are in good agreement with results obtained from conventional swell measurements. The advantages of TSSR measurements over swell measurements are quite obvious. Whereas swelling measurements are very time consuming, TSSR tests are much easier and faster to perform. Additionally, information about the relaxation behavior and degradation of the PP ‐ phase was obtained from TSSR measurements.