Rubber crumb-reinforced silicone elastomers

Even at end of life, automotive rubber is a very resilient product as shown by the difficulty in recycling/reusing rubber tires. Based on a technology to dissolve rubber tires developed in our lab, this project will seek to use “less chemistry” to create siliconized rubber crumb from used tires. The original quality of the automotive rubber will be maintained, but its ability to incorporate into silicone elastomers will be enhanced. Ms. Gellé will vary the type, quantity of silicone on the rubber crumb and then incorporate the crumb into different silicone rubbers at different quantities. Since rubber crumb is less that one tenth the cost of silicone, the product will be less expensive than pure silicone and make use of a difficult-to-manage raw material; used rubber tires.

Faculty Supervisor:

Michael Brook

Student:

Partner:

École nationale supérieure de chimie de Rennes

Discipline:

Physics

Sector:

Sustainability & the Environment; Manufacturing and Construction; Clean Technology

University:

McMaster University

Program: