Mechanistic modeling of reversion phenomenon in sulphur cured natural rubber vulcanization kinetics

The vulcanization kinetics of a model natural rubber compound was characterized experimentally by rheological measurements, in order to test the proposed kinetic model. A remarkable agreement between model predictions and experimental data is observed. The identified kinetic parameters corresponding to the individual reactions taken into account by the mechanistic model are consistent with those of an existing, less refined, pseudo-mechanistic model. The proposed model thus allows bridging the gap between the prediction of macroscopic variations of the elastic modulus and the evolution of molecular scale structure during vulcanization when the reversion phenomenon is present.