| Abstract: | Acrylonitrile butadiene rubber (NBR)/poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) alloy, filled with anhydrous copper sulfate (CuSO4) particles, was investigated for the first time. The material could be crosslinked in the existence of CuSO4 by heat pressing, without any other crosslink agents. The crosslinking in the material was induced by in situ coordination between nitrile groups of NBR and solid CuSO4 particles, which is thoroughly different from the traditional vulcanization of rubber materials. The coordination crosslinking is formed during heat pressing, other than in solutions, which is valuable for practical applications. The resulting material showed excellent tensile properties, and the maximum strength was close to 90 MPa. The CuSO4 particles act not only as crosslink agents, but also as reinforcing fillers in the polymer matrix. In this work, dynamic mechanical analysis, differential scanning calorimetry, Fourier transform infrared spectrum, X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscope, energy‐dispersive X‐ray spectrum, equilibrium swelling method, and tensile test were performed for the characterization of the material. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 44: 378–386, 2006 |
