Molecular transport of aromatic hydrocarbons through crosslinked styrene-butadiene rubber membranes

Molecular transport of aromatic hydrocarbons through crosslinked SBR has been carried out in the temperature range 25-65 degrees C. SBR has been vulcanized by four different vulcanizing techniques viz., conventional, efficient, dicumyl peroxide and a mixture consisting of sulfur and peroxide. SBR vulcanized with EV system showed highest solvent uptake tendency and that vulcanized with peroxide showed the lowest. The influence of penetrant size on sorption behaviour of SBR has been examined. The thermodynamic constants such as standard entropy, standard enthalpy and first-order kinetic rate constant have been evaluated. A correlation between theoretical and experimental sorption results was evaluated. The polymer-solvent interaction parameter (chi) was also computed from the diffusion data. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.