Efficient degradation of vulcanized natural rubber into liquid rubber by catalytic oxidation

•Vulcanized NR is efficiently degraded to liquid rubber at 210 °C for 3 min.•Manganese stearate reduces the apparent activation energy of oxidative degradation.•Both main chains and crosslinks were broken during catalytic degradation process.•The obtained liquid rubber contained carbonyls, ether linkages, and sulfoxide groups. Waste tire rubber based on natural rubber (NR) represents an abundant feedstock for the production of valuable products. This study investigated an efficient approach to convert NR vulcanizates into liquid rubber with the number-average molar masses of 1.3 × 104 g/mol. Compared to the anaerobic liquefaction at 300 °C for 3 min, NR vulcanizates were liquefied efficiently at 210 °C for 3 min by thermo-oxidative degradation catalyzed by manganese (II) stearate. The apparent activation energy of the NR degradation reaction decreased from 470.8 kJ/mol to 208.2 kJ/mol with catalysis, which was attributed to the formation of a coordination complex between catalysts and peroxides via the single-electron transfer redox reaction, leading to the catalytic oxidative degradation of NR vulcanizates. The main chain scission and crosslink scission occurred simultaneously during the degradation process, and the main chain scission was the primary catalytic oxidation reaction according to the Horikx theory. In addition, the obtained liquid rubber contained carbonyls, ether linkages, and sulfoxide groups, as proved by FTIR and 13CNMR . The catalytic oxidative degradation mechanism of NR vulcanizates was proposed based on the chemical structure of products and simulation results. The efficient method was proposed to highly facilitate the recycling and valorization of NR-based waste tire rubber. [Display omitted]