Waste tire powder, as waste rubber WR was subjected to grafting with styrene (St) and maleic anhydride (MA). Hydrogen peroxide H 2 O 2 was used to initiate the free radical copolymerization of St onto WR. A thermal initiation was used in case of grafting of MA onto WR. Effect of initiator and monomer concentrations together with the influence of reaction temperature and reaction time were investigated. The grafting was estimated by weight, and the grafted copolymers were characterized by FT/IR, DSC and SEM to prove the grafting. It has found that the grafting increases with increase monomer and initiator concentrations. The increase in the reaction temperature and time also causes increasing levels of the grafted St and MA.

Pollution of the environment with scrap vulcanized rubber causes significant problems, due to the rubber's resistivity to natural conditions. This work deals with the chemical modification of waste vulcanized rubber, especially scrap tires, using chlorination and amination reactions. Chlorination of scrape-powdered tires was carried out in an aqueous and in a non-aqueous medium, passing through a continuous stream of Cl 2 gas. A high yield of chlorinated waste rubber is obtained in the case of the aqueous medium using HOCl and HClO 4 solutions. Amination reactions of the highly chlorinated waste rubber sample were achieved, using different primary, secondary and tertiary amines at 150, 175 and 200 ºC, for two and three hours respectively. Characterizations of recycled waste rubber are performed using the IR, DSC, and SEM methods. A suggested mechanism of the reactions has been given.