Qualitative and quantitative determination of the polymer content in rubber formulations

The objective of this paper is to show an easy and rapid way to determine qualitatively and quantitatively the type of polymer or polymer blend used in a rubber formulation. The most common polymers used manufacturing rubber products were tested and characterized by both their decomposition temperature and the curve profile. Thermogravimetric analysis, which is considered to be used mainly for quantitative purposes, turned out to be a rather useful analytical tool to obtain qualitative information of such elastomeric mixtures.