Water-Swellable Thermoplastic Vulcanizates Based on Ethylene-vinyl Acetate Copolymer/Cross-linked Sodium Polyacrylate/Chlorinated Polyethylene

Abstract

A novel water-swellable rubber (WSR) was prepared by dynamically vulcanizing ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer (EVA)/chlorinated polyethylene (CPE) blends where the cross-linked poly (sodium acrylate) (CPNaAA) was used as a super water-absorbent resin and dispersed in the CPE rubber. Experimental results showed that the mechanical properties of TPVs decreased while the water-swelling ratio increased significantly with increasing of CPNaAA dosages, the swelling ratio of 60 phr CPNaAA TPVs reaching 746.1% at 93 h. Morphological study showed that the CPNaAA particles were dispersed randomly in the TPVs; Some significant gaps and large cavities could be found in the surface of dried TPVs.

Keywords:

• Chlorinated polyethylene
• Cross-linked sodium polyacrylate
• Dynamically vulcanization
• Ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer
• Swelling
• Water-swellable rubbers

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The work was funded by a Project of Shandong Province Higher Educational Science and Technology Program (J12LA15), the Science and Technology Development Project of Qingdao (12-1-4-3-(9)-jch), and the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (ZR2012EMM002).