| Abstract: | When certain substances, notably waxes, are incorporated into rubber during vulcanization, the surface of the vulcanized rubber may subsequently become covered by a film of the substance diffusing out. This phenomenon, known as blooming, depends on the substance being soluble at the vulcanization temperature but only partially soluble at the temperature of blooming. A study has been made using pure waxes in natural rubber vulcanizates with a range of crosslink densities. The mass of bloomed material has been determined as a function of time, and the expected dependence on the square root of the time has been found to hold over the anticipated range. It has been shown that the kinetics of the process cannot be explained simply in terms of the degree of supersaturation of the wax in the rubber, the observed rates being much too low. This appears to be related to the precipitation of the wax in the body of the material. A theory has been developed based on a calculation of the stresses set up around such a precipitated particle and the effect of the consequent free-energy gradient on the rate of diffusion. Comparison with experiment shows satisfactory agreement with the theory. |
