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
Natural rubber using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) and gas chromatography (GC) indicates that they contain sulphur, ammonia, alkenes, ketones, esters, hydrogen sulphite, nitrogen, and low molecular weight fatty acids (C2-C5). When latex concentrate is produced from rubber, sulphuric acid is used for coagulation. This produces malodourous hydrogen sulphide. The industry can mitigate these bad odours with scrubber systems. Latex is the polymer cis-1,4-polyisoprene – with a molecular weight of 100,000 to 1,000,000 daltons. Typically, a small percentage (up to 5% of dry mass) of other materials, such as proteins, fatty acids, resins, and inorganic materials (salts) are found in natural rubber. Polyisoprene