Decalin Dissolving Method for Recover of Styrene –Butadiene Rubber from Scrap Tires

Decalin, a hydrocarbon industrial solvent was used for the recovery of Styrene- Butadiene Rubber (SBR) from grind scrap truck tires using chemical dissolving method. The applied technique is easy, simple and depends on available materials. The method depends mainly on steeping the scrap tires grind into decalin at 50C for one month. Then the process was followed by boiling of the formed thick black solution (198°C) for two hours. The formed elastic rubber material will be reclaimed by precipitation in methanol. The recovered rubber was characterized using FTIR spectroscopy and XRD analyses.  The pattern of the recovered material shows broad maxima of SBR with the absence of XRD peaks of carbon black and almost all the other tire manufacturing additives. The thermal characteristics of the reclaimed rubber have been investigated by TGA, DTG and DSC analyses and were found to be close to those of thermal properties of SBR polymer. The SEM image has shown non-crystalline morphological surface of the recovered rubber with cohesive elastomeric properties.