General Knowledge - General Science - Discussion

Vulcanisation means a process of treating rubber or rubber like materials with sulfur at great heat to improve elasticity and strength or to harden them.

The process was discovered in 1839 by the US Inventor Charles Goodyear, who also noted the important function of certain additional substances in the process. Such a material called an accelerator (q.v), causes vulcanization to proceed more rapidly or at lower temperatures. The reactions between rubber and sulfur are not fully understood, but in the product, the sulfur is not simply dissolved or dispersed in the rubber; it is chemically combined, mostly in the form of cross-links, or bridges, between the long-chain molecules.

Vulcanisation means a process of treating rubber or rubber like materials with sulfur at great heat to improve elasticity and strength or to harden them.

Process of treating rubber or rubber like materials with sulfur at great heat to improve elasticity and strength or to harden them.