Estimation by mechanical analysis of the molecular parameters of SBR vulcanizates at different cure conditions

The changes in the network structure of SBR‐1712 during vulcanization were analyzed by means of a study of the stress–strain behavior at uniaxial extension at room temperature. In order to obtain different degrees of crosslinking, samples were cured at 414 K and 433 K at several times and were characterized by a rheometer. The conformational tube model was applied for the treatment of the stress–strain measurements of vulcanized samples. This theory allows the separation of crosslink and constraint contributions to the stress–strain behavior and relevant network parameters can be estimated. In this article the change with the temperature and time of cure of the average molecular mass of the mobile network chains, the crosslink density, the microscopic lateral tube dimension, and the root‐mean‐square end‐to‐end distance of the network chain are evaluated.