ON THE REACTIVITY OF C60 FULLERENE WITH DIENE RUBBER MACRORADICALS. II. THE REACTIVITY WITH CIS-1,4-POLYISOPRENE UNDER MILDER THERMAL CONDITIONS

Abstract

Evidences about the reactivity of cis-1,4-polyisoprene (natural and synthetic origin) with C60 are presented by TGA data and by FT-IR and UV-VIS spectroscopy. At 190°C under nitrogen C60 fullerene causes the crosslinking cis-1,4-polyisoprene. The proposed resulting structure is a three-dimensional network where C60 represents the knots and the rubber chain fragments the filaments connecting the knots.