Vulcanized vegetable oil (VVO) is a product synthesized from unsaturated vegetable oil and
a vulcanizing agent such as sulphur. It is used in rubber industry as processing aid and is imported into
Nigeria whereas there are potential plant oils such as rubber seed oil (RSO) locally available in the
country for its synthesis. Rubber seed oil is obtained from the seeds of the rubber tree (hevea brasiliensis)
and are in abundance in Nigeria but unexploited. Its use in the synthesis of VVO was investigated by
using sulphur as the vulcanizing agent. The effects of various doses of additives such as iodine,
magnesium oxide, sodium carbonate, 2-mercaptobenzothioazole and zinc diethyldithiocarbonate on the
vulcanization process were investigated. The vulcanized rubber seed oil (VRSO) obtained was
characterized in terms of hardness, free sulphur, ash content and acetone extract. The type of vulcanized
oil produced from rubber seed oil was found to depend on the level of sulphur and additive used. As the
level of sulphur used in the synthesis without additives was increased from 15wt% to 30wt% of oil, the
gel time was reduced from 35minutes to 14minutes and the physical properties of the VRSO improved. The use of some of the additives markedly affected the gel time particularly magnesium oxide which at 10wt% and 30wt% sulphur loading reduced gel time to 6minutes while some others seemed to have little effect on the gel time. The study shows that VVO can be produced from RSO when the right combination of additives is used instead of when sulphur is used separately
