Study of rubber oxidation by thermoanalysis

A method using the DSC was utilized whereby the oxidation of natural rubber was studied by adapting the procedures developed by Kissinger, Doyle, and Ozawa for thermoanalysis. Thus oxidative induction time of several hours for a particular rubber sample can be estimated in a relatively short time. Some of the results of this method are compared with those from other established methods, the estimated oxidative induction time showing a good correlation with some of the systems tested. The validity and limitations of this method are discussed.