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The Effect of the Recycling Process on the Performance of Thermoplastic Vulcanizates Containing Recycled Rubber from End-of-Life Tyres
Summary
Researchers evaluated thermal, chemical, and mechanical recycling methods for ground tire rubber from end-of-life tires to improve its compatibility in thermoplastic vulcanizate (TPV) composites, finding that optimizing recycling procedures and vulcanization systems reduced interfacial issues and produced materials with competitive mechanical properties for automotive and construction applications.
End-of-life tyres (ELT) are an important source of energy and materials, with ELT powder (ELTp) being a secondary raw material of increasing industrial interest. However, the complex structure and composition of ELTp rubber pose technological difficulties and scientific challenges in some high-performance applications in the rubber industry. The mechanical recycling of ELTp produces ground tyre rubber (GTR) powder, which is used, among other applications in the rubber field, to prepare thermoplastic vulcanizates (TPV) due to the interest in these materials in the automotive and construction sectors. Over the last decades, different approaches have been explored to minimize the limitations of these TPVs relating to the large particle size and poor compatibility of GTR powder with other polymer matrices. This study applies different recycling procedures to GTR powder, based on thermal, chemical and mechanical methods, and combinations thereof, to minimize interfacial issues with other matrices used in TPV preparation. The effect of the different rubber recycling processes on the performance of the resulting TPVs was evaluated, optimizing the fraction of recycled rubber from ELTp and the vulcanization system to enhance the mechanical properties and obtain industrially competitive products.