Deformulation of a Rubber by TGA-GC/ MS, DSC, DMA and ATR

Introduction

Deformulation refers to a set of analytical procedures used to separate and identify individual components of a mixture. It is widely practiced in the rubber industry to gain a better understanding of the composition of competitors' products, evaluate new products or assess supplier materials. A number of ingredients, such as fillers or plasticizers, are added to both natural and synthetic rubber in order to obtain certain desirable properties. The following examples illustrate the use of thermal analysis and hyphenated thermal analysis techniques for determining the composition of an unknown rubber compound.

Sample: Unknown black rubber

Measuring cells: DSC, DMA, FTIR-ATR and TGA-GC/MS

^{Deformulation of a Rubber by TGA-GC/MS, DSC, DMA and ATR | Thermal Analysis Application No. HB 623 | Application published in METTLER TOLEDO TA Application Handbook Evolved Gas Analysis}