Thesis supervisor: Tamás Bárány
Location of studies (in Hungarian): Department of Polymer Engineering Abbreviation of location of studies: PT
Description of the research topic:
a.) Antecedents: The recycling of waste rubber composite products (discarded, scrap tyres, conveyers, etc.) poses a great challenge owning to their crosslinked structure. It is therefore of high importance to develop technologically feasible and cost-effective methods for recycling of rubber from these rubber products. The best way would be to fully devulcanize the rubber and use it in new rubber products. For it the microwave treatment is the most promising environmental friendly technique. The use of microwave allows the energy required for the devulcanization of the rubbers to be easily obtained and controlled. The energy required for the devulcanization of rubber is around 180 Wh for 1 kg rubber. In the microwave technique the waste rubber must be polar in order to generate the heat (>250°C) necessary for devulcanization. At the present there is no funded knowledge on the recipe dependence and efficiency of rubber devulcanization by microwave.
b.) Aim of research: The goal of the research is to study the microwave devulcanization of different scrap rubbers, to determine the effect of the microwave parameters and the rubber recipe (rubbers, additives, fillers) on the microwave devulcanization and to check their revulcanization alone and in rubber mixes.
c.) Tasks, main items, necessary time:
• Literature review in the field of rubber, especially the rubber devulcanization. (6 months)
• Microwave devulcanization of rubbers with known recipe and scrap rubbers. The effect of additives, fillers and rubber as well as the microwaving parameters on the devulcanization efficiency. (18 monts)
• Incorporation of high amount of microwave treated scrap rubber in curable rubber recipes. (12 months)
d.) Required equipment: All the necessary testing and other equipment are available at the laboratory of the Department.
e.) Expected scientific results: The effect of rubber recipe on the microwave devulcanization of rubber, the characterization of revulcanization of the devulcanized rubbers
f.) References:
• Karger-Kocsis J., Mészáros L., Bárány T.: Ground tyre rubber (GTR) in thermoplastics, thermosets, and rubbers, Journal of Materials Science, 48, 1-38 (2013).
• Mészáros L., Fejős M., Bárány T.: Mechanical properties of recycled LDPE/EVA/Ground tyre rubber blends: Effects of EVA content and postirradiation. Journal of Applied Polymer Science, 125, 512-519 (2012).
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