The Time–Temperature Superposition of Polymeric Rubber Gels Treated by Means of the Mode-Coupling Theory

Abstract

Viscoelastic relaxation measurements on styrene-butadiene rubbers (SBRs) doped with carbon nanotube (CNT) at different concentrations around the sol-gel transition show the time–temperature superposition (TTS). This process is described in terms of the mode coupling theory (MCT) approach to viscoelasticity by considering the frequency behavior of the loss modulus E″(ω) and showing that the corresponding TTS is linked to ω1/2 decay. From the analysis of the obtained data, we observe that the interaction between SBRs and CNT determines different levels of decay according to their concentration. Systems with the lowest CNT concentration are only characterized in the studied T-range by their fragile glass-forming behavior. However, at a specific temperature TL, those with the highest CNT concentration show a crossover towards pure Arrhenius that, according to the MCT, indicates the presence of kinetic glass transition (KGT), where system response functions are characterized by scaling behaviors.