Peroxide vulcanisation is a widely used cure system for elastomers and offers many possibilities for use, mainly because of the availability of co-agents and scorch\ud
retarders. The range of applications of peroxide cure could significantly be widened, if certain mechanical properties could be improved, to reach the level attained with sulphur curing, yet maintaining the good high temperature properties typical of peroxide vulcanisates and providing a system with proper scorch safety.\ud
In order to achieve this synergistic combination of sulphur and peroxide properties in a peroxide cure system, co-agents play a key role in the compound formulation. The use of commercially available co-agents in peroxide vulcanisation boosts the cure efficiency and provides an improvement in mechanical properties.\ud
However, a step forward is still needed in order to bring several mechanical properties, such as tensile strength, to the level achieved with sulphur curing.\ud
The development of new co-agents which are able to improve the mechanical properties of peroxide vulcanisates to reach the level of sulphur vucanisates, yet maintaining the excellent high temperature properties typical for peroxide cured articles, can be the way of achieving the synergistic system aimed for. These new co-agents should, at the same time, provide scorch safety.\ud
The work described in this thesis is dedicated to seek this synergistic combination of sulphur and peroxide cure by using new co-agents. Further, the understanding of the co-agent reaction mechanism during vulcanisation is also\ud
addressed, in order to comprehend the chemistry that takes place and therefore to be able to tune the co-agent system to obtain optimal properties
