Time–temperature dependence of the thermo-oxidative aging of polychloroprene rubber: The time–temperature-transformation (TTT) superposition method and the lifetime prediction

The time–temperature dependence of the thermo-oxidative aging of polychloroprene rubber (CR) was studied using the time–temperature-transformation (TTT) superposition method and the IEC-216 norm. Aging of the material was performed inside temperature-controlled oven under circulated air temperature. The samples were characterized by gravimetry (G), thermogravimetric analysis (TG) and Shore A hardness before and after aging. It was demonstrated that the basic idea of Wisanrrakkit and Gilham for the TTT treatment of DSC thermal analysis data can be applied in the studies of CR aging processes. A quantitative relation between aging temperature, aging time, Shore A hardness and mass loss variation was demonstrated, which permits the prediction of lifetime under thermo-oxidative condition of CR.