Read that when rubber turns to a gooey, is because ozone acted on it... or was improperly vulcanized, or... solvents/chemicals nearby are guilty...

 

Can a piece of that 'degraded' rubber 'infect ' healthy rubber kept nearby and deteriorate it ?

 

 

Read that when rubber turns to a gooey, is because ozone acted on it... or was improperly vulcanized, or... solvents/chemicals nearby are guilty...

 

Can a piece of that 'degraded' rubber 'infect ' healthy rubber kept nearby and deteriorate it ?

 

 

Rubber is biodegradeable in the right conditions,so, if you have some rubber being affected by the bacteria that do this it seems feasible that they could migrate to uninfected stuff in the vicinity and affect that.

 

 

Biodegradation of Natural Rubber and Related Compounds: Recent Insights into a Hardly Understood Catabolic Capability of Microorganisms

 

 

Natural rubber latex is produced by over 2,000 plant species, and its main constituent is poly(cis-1,4-isoprene), a highly unsaturated hydrocarbon. Since 1914 there have been efforts to investigate microbial rubber degradation; however, only recently have the first proteins involved in this process been identified and characterized and have the corresponding genes been cloned. Analyses of the degradation products of natural and synthetic rubbers isolated from various bacterial cultures indicated without exception that there was oxidative cleavage of the double bond in the polymer backbone. http://aem.asm.org/content/71/6/2803.full

Edit: Use link in next post.

Edited January 9, 20179 yr by StringJunky

Sorry. If you look I joined up the the link twice. http://aem.asm.org/content/71/6/2803.full

Thank you StringJunky.

 

Edited : added ----> If bacteria are guilty; is it safe to say that rubber exposure to ultraviolet light would prevent vulcanized rubber degradation ?

(It does not happen to tires as far as I know; but indoors kept rubber is prone to) The latex bands of my scuba spearguns are suggested to be kept away from sunlight. Could that be a goofy empirism ?

 

Unless there is more reasons for rubber degradation...

Edited January 9, 20179 yr by Externet

Thank you StringJunky.

 

Edited : added ----> If bacteria are guilty; is it safe to say that rubber exposure to ultraviolet light would prevent vulcanized rubber degradation ?

(It does not happen to tires as far as I know; but indoors kept rubber is prone to) The latex bands of my scuba spearguns are suggested to be kept away from sunlight. Could that be a goofy empirism ?

 

Unless there is more reasons for rubber degradation...

UV is the ultimate "destructive agent" , so the answer is "no"

Thanks. So UV is not destructive to bacteria ?

Thanks. So UV is not destructive to bacteria ?

Yes, it is. Problem is, it is also (very) destructive to your rubber.

Thanks. So at least two causes. Bacteria and ultraviolet. Rubber turned to gooey I have seen only indoors. Cracked rubber only outdoors. Hmmm.

Thanks. So at least two causes. Bacteria and ultraviolet. Rubber turned to gooey I have seen only indoors. Cracked rubber only outdoors. Hmmm.

Have you considered saltwater and uv acting in combination on the rubber? I read that the cracking is the long polymers cleaving into shorter chains.

Edited January 9, 20179 yr by StringJunky