Sulfur vulcanization a substantial fraction of natural and synthetic rubber. Reclaimed rubber has altered properties and is unsuitable for use in many products, including tires. Tires and other vulcanized products are potentially amenable to devulcanization, but this technology has not produced material that can supplant unvulcanized materials. The main problem is that the carbon-sulfur linkages are not readily broken, without the input of costly reagents and heat. Thus, more than half of scrap rubber is simply burned for fuel. Although polymeric sulfur is unstable and decomposes back to its monomer, it is possible to create stable polymers consisting mostly of sulfur via
Rubber toughening few large cracks in untoughened polymer accounts for a large fraction of the increase in fracture energy. Interaction between rubber particles and crazes puts elongation pressures onto the particles in the direction of stress. If this force overcomes the surface adhesion between the rubber and polymer, debonding will occur, thereby diminishing the toughening effect associated with crazing. If the particle is harder, it will be less able to deform, and thus debonding occurs under less stress. This is one reason why dispersed rubbers, below their own glass transition temperature, do not toughen plastics effectively. Shear yielding theory is one that,