The Physical Property Effects of compatibilizers in Ultrafine Ground Scrap Tire Rubber Blended with Thermoplastic Olefins

Thermoset rubber products offer challenges for recycling as compared to thermoplastics. A number of recycling methods exist for thermoset rubber compounds, including tire derived fuel and civil engineering applications, however, new recycling methods are needed. One method to recycle rubber is to produce crumb rubber powder by grinding, which can be used in asphalt, or blended with plastics to create rubber toughened products or novel thermoplastic elastomers. The purpose of this research was to investigate the effect of different particle size ground scrap rubber on the properties at different loading levels. The effect of two different compatibilizers (aliphatic and amide) was also investigated. Compounds were mixed using a twin screw extruder and injection molded into test specimens. The mechanical properties (tensile and impact) and thermal properties by differential scanning calorimetry were studied for the various loading levels and compatiblizers.