Heterogeneity and Heat Aging Effect Seen in Rubber Vulcanizates Investigated By Nano-Palpation AFM

We found and reported in the 183rd spring meeting the mechanical heterogeneity of rubber vulcanizates at about thirty-nanometer length scale by nano-palpation AFM, by which it becomes possible to obtain two-dimensional mappings of Young’s modulus, viscoelastic work and so on. It seemed that patchwork-like pattern corresponded to two distinguishable regions. One had higher modulus with almost perfectly elastic response and another with lower modulus showed viscoelastic nature. We further investigated the phenomena with correlating with heat aging effect, which will be discussed at the site.