Prediction of mechanical properties of polychloroprene during thermo-oxidative aging

This study aims to foster the understanding of the variations in the tensile behavior of polychloroprene rubber (CR) caused by thermo-oxidative aging. During aging, both elastic constants C1 and C2 of the Mooney-Rivlin equation increase, due to crosslink formation and a decrease in the flexibility of the structure network. The dependences of the mechanical properties on aging time and aging temperature are found to follow the Arrhenius relationship with similar activation energy.