Development of ionically crosslinked network in metal oxide based carboxylated acrylonitrile butadiene copolymer with self-healing characteristics

Ionic clusters produced during the crosslinking of elastomers with zinc oxide influence the overall mechanical performance of ionic elastomers such as carboxylated nitrile rubber (XNBR). The composition of these ionic aggregates is investigated for the first time in this work by maintaining time as variable and other factors constant. Lower temperature healing properties by formation of ionic crosslink has been observed. Detailed analysis by Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy revealed that interaction between Zn2+ and COO1- actually affects the bonding structures and Universal Testing Machine proved that ionic crosslink shows better healing efficiency than a combination of covalent and ionic crosslink due to sulphur and zinc oxide, for the first time. The inability to heal the rubber compound at all due to the presence of Carbon Black filler was also observed for the first time.