Subhradeep Mandal

Subhradeep has an MSc in applied chemistry from Calcutta University, India. He completed his MTech in rubber science and technology from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur in 2020. After this, he moved to Germany and joined the PhD program at Leibniz-Institut für Polymerforschung Dresden (IPF). His research interests are self-healing elastomers, sustainable rubber composites, etc.

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Presentation

Imidazole cured epoxidized natural rubber for sustainable tire application

In this report, we are describing an innovative cross-linking phenomenon for epoxidized natural rubber (ENR) that resulted in one component curing, self-healing capacity and recyclability, as well as a path to develop a sustainable elastomer using just 1H-Imidazole and no other chemical reagents. Chemical characterizations revealed that covalent interaction between ENR and imidazole, followed by dynamic hydrogen bonding and formation of ionic aggregates, led to promising mechanical properties (tensile strength ~4.5 MPa, elongation at break~700%). The material's capacity for self-healing and reprocessability was also investigated. The study shed new light on natural rubber-based advanced materials with high sustainability.