Improved Nitrile Rubbers with Polymerization Bound Antioxidant Stabilization

Butadiene-acrylonitrile copolymers have been the preferred general purpose oil and fuel resistant elastomers in automotive, aircraft and industrial product applications for over 30 years. The need for improved service performance to meet more severe and/or newly emerging service requirements has prompted a number of studies to improve the performance of these polymers. This work has led to the development of a family of new and unique polymerization bound antioxidant stabilized nitrile rubbers which have outstanding heat resistance characteristics. These new rubbers also retain their age resistance qualities after exposure to oils or fuels which can extract the protective antioxidants from conventional nitrile rubbers thereby contributing to early failure of parts in service.