With the increasing interest in hydrogen energy, the stability of hydrogen storage facilities and components is emphasized. In this study, we analyzed the effect of high-pressure hydrogen gas treatment in silica-filled EPDM composites with different silica contents. In detail, cure characteristics, crosslink density, mechanical properties, and hydrogen permeation properties were investigated. Results showed that material volume, remaining hydrogen content, and mechanical properties were changed after 96.3 MPa hydrogen gas exposure. With an increase in the silica content, the crosslink density and mechanical properties increased, but hydrogen permeability was decreased. After treatment, high-silica-content composites showed lower volume change than low-silica-content composites. The crack damage due to the decompression caused a decrease in mechanical properties, but high silica content can inhibit the reduction in mechanical properties. In particular, EPDM/silica composites with a silica content of above 60 phr exhibited excellent resistance to hydrogen gas, as no change in their physical and mechanical properties was observed.

To obtain high-performance recyclable ethylene propylene diene rubber (EPDM), EPDM was chemically functionalized as follows: EPDM was grafted with citraconic acid (CCA) by radical melt polymerization to produce a grafted EPDM (EPDM-g-CCA), and EPDM-g-CCA was reacted with various amino acids by melt condensation reaction to give amidated copolymers (EPDM-g-CCA-2-Am, EPDM-g-CCA-7-Am, and EPDM-g-CCA-12-Am, where the n indicates the carbon number of amino acid), and then ionomers (EPDM-g-CCA/n-Am/Io) were prepared by melt reaction of EPDM-g-CCA/n-Ams with Zinc oxide (ZnO)/zinc stearate (ZnSt). The mechanical properties/compression set (CS) resistance (elasticity)/recyclability of pristine EPDM, EPDM-g-CCA, EPDMg-CCA/n-Am, and ionomers sheet samples were compared. The tensile strength/modulus, tear strength, and elasticity of samples were mostly increased in the order of ionomers>EPDM-g-CCA/n-Ams>EPDM-g-CCA>pristine EPDM. The properties of ionomers increased significantly with increasing the carbon number in amino acid up to seven, and then levelled off or decreased a little. The tensile strength/elasticity (compression set resistance) of recyclable ionomer (EPDM-g-CCA/7-Am/Io) was found to be 9.42/2.31 times of pristine EPDM, respectively.