Stress–thermal oxidative aging behavior of hydrogenated nitrile rubber seals

The long-term thermal oxidative aging behavior of uncompressed and compressed hydrogenated nitrile rubber seals was studied in terms of the weight loss, chemical structure, crosslinking density, compression set, fracture morphology, and mechanical properties. It was found that weight loss of the uncompressed seals was more than that of the compressed seals due to restricted mobility of additives and molecular chains under compression. The ATR–FTIR results showed that hydroxyl groups and carbonyl groups both were formed under the uncompressed and compressed states, whereas only the generation of amide groups was observed under the uncompressed state. Additionally, crosslinking reactions dominated throughout the aging process, but stress-induced and oxidation-induced chain scissions occurred and competed with crosslinking during subsequent middle and later stages of aging at 110 °C. Compression set of the compressed seals implied the formation of a denser network structure. The surface damage of the uncompressed seals gradually turned more serious and inhomogeneous than that of the compressed seals. Mechanical properties of the uncompressed and compressed seals showed a similar variation tendency with exposure time and degraded more seriously at higher temperatures. The TGA results indicated that the aging conditions (elevated temperature and compressive stress) did not significantly affect the thermal stability of the rubber seals.