Abstract:
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The mass manufacture of tires and the difficulty for their elimination or storage constitutes a serious environmental
problem. At present, several methods for the recycling of tires are used, such as mechanical crushing, in which the steel
vulcanized rubber and the fibers are separated; this rubber is being used in numerous applications like pavements,
insulators, footwear, etc. This study proposes a second option for obsolete tires, demonstrating their utility as dielectrics.
In order to do so, ground tire rubber (GTR) has been combined with polyvinyl chloride (PVC), to obtain a
composite of a polymeric matrix reinforced with GTR. In order to determine the behavior of this composite material,
the electrical and mechanical tests are presented as well as, more briefly, microstructure and thermal analyses, undertaken
for the various mixtures of PVC with GTR (concentrations of 0%, 5%, 10%, 20%, 40%, 50%, and 70% GTR), and
three GTR particle size categories (<200 mm, 200–500 mm, and >500 mm), in a range of temperatures that varied from
30 C to 130 C, and with frequencies from between 1 10 2 Hz and 3 106 Hz. The dielectric tests have allowed for an
analysis of dielectric constant, dielectric loss factor, dielectric modulus, etc. On the other hand, the mechanical analysis
has involved the Young’s modulus, tensile strength, elongation at break, and toughness. Mechanical and dielectric results
point out that below 20% of GTR the material features for mechanical or electrical applications are not significantly
altered. |