Ageing of inverse vulcanised polymers

Inverse vulcanised polymers are an emerging class of materials with a broad range of applications from energy storage to fertiliser systems. As these materials are still subject of research, scaling to real-life applications is just underway. One major factor for these materials to be fit for industrial use is their ageing behaviour under environmental influences such as temperature, sunlight, moisture and pH or biological attack. Since ageing is rarely discussed in literature, we herein investigate the ageing behaviour of common inverse vulcanised polymers under real-life and simulated environmental influences. The results show strong structure-properties relationships depending on the comonomers used for the polymerisation. Aliphatic non-functional monomers produce rigid polymers with high resistance towards environmental influences, whereas bio-derived and functional monomers deliver more flexible materials that are prone to degradation by oxidation and hydrolysis. This study provides groundwork for future research into the design of sulfur polymers that require environmental stability or controlled degradation for their individual application.