J Polym Res (2012) 19:9864
DOI 10.1007/s10965-012-9864-y
ORIGINAL PAPER
Improvement of the properties of natural rubber/ground tire
rubber composites through biological desulfurization of GTR
Yuanhu Li & Suhe Zhao & Yaqin Wang
Received: 20 September 2011 / Accepted: 30 March 2012 / Published online: 17 April 2012
# Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012
Abstract The surface desulfurization of ground tire rubber
(GTR) had been carried out via a biological treatment by
Thiobacillus sp. with strong sulfur oxidizing capacity. The
bonding states and element content on the surface of GTR
and desulfurated GTR (DGTR) were evaluated using an X-ray
Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS). The contact angle of GTR
was 120.5° and decreased down to 93.5° after treatment. The
cure characteristics, swelling behavior, and crosslink density
of natural rubber (NR)/GTR and NR/DGTR were examined.
The improvement in mechanical properties was observed for
NR/DGTR vulcanizates, which was attributed to the enhanced
interfacial interaction between DGTR and NR matrix. The
dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) results showed that
NR/DGTR vulcanizates had a reduction of molecular chain
friction resistance during glass transition region and Scanning
electron microscopy (SEM) studies further indicated a good
coherency and homogeneity between DGTR and NR matrix.
Keywords Ground tire rubber . Desulfurization . Natural
rubber . Composites . Mechanical properties
Introduction
The large quantities of worn out tires have posed challenging
environmental and disposal problems. These materials cannot
Y. Li : S. Zhao (*)
Key Laboratory of Beijing City on Preparation and Processing
of Novel Polymer Materials, College of Materials Science
and Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology,
Beijing 100029, China
e-mail: zhaosh@mail.buct.edu.cn
Y. Wang
College of Life Science and Technology,
Beijing University of Chemical Technology,
Beijing 100029, China
return to the ecological environment through natural degrada-
tion because rubber vulcanizates have a stable cross-linked
three-dimensional network structure [1, 2]. The reuse or recy-
cling of waste rubber tires is a significant and word-wide
problem.
A potentially attractive recycling or utilizing way is to
grind waste tire rubber into ground tire rubber (GTR) and use
the GTR as a compounding ingredient or as a replacement of
raw rubber. The reuse of GTR not only achieves the goals of
protecting the environment but also saves limited petroleum
resources from which the raw material is originated. How-
ever, the bonds between GTR and the rubber matrix are very
weak because of the crosslink structure of GTR and lack of
reactive sites on the GTR surface, resulting in a decrease of
the mechanical properties of composites. One possible way
to overcome this problem is to break the sulfur crosslink
bonds on the surface of GTR, thereby make the hydrocarbon
chain regain flexible and increase the number of reactive
sites. The crosslink bonds of ground rubber can be cleaved
via numerous techniques, primarily physical and chemical
methods [3–6]. Both methods are efficient to enhance the
bonds between the ground rubber and matrix [7–10], but the
methods have high energy consumption or secondary pol-
lution involved.
In recent years, several microorganisms that exhibit bio-
logical activity towards sulfur have been used for the desul-
furization of ground rubber [11–14]. These microorganisms
can decrease the sulfur content or oxidize sulfur to sulfate,
increasing the reactive sites on the surface of ground rubber.
Microbial desulfurization processes have several advantages,
breaking only the surface sulfur cross-linked bond of ground
rubber, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly, com-
pared with physical and chemical processes which normally
are energy demanding or require hazardous chemicals.
This article attempted to find a cost-effective and environ-
mental friendly technique for recycling waste rubber by
Page 2 of 7 J Polym Res (2012) 19:9864

biological treatment. Thiobacillus sp. had been reported that it Table 1 Formulation of
NR composites Material Weight/phr
could decrease the sulfur content of GTR and oxidize sulfur to
sulfate [15, 16]. In this study, Thiobacillus sp. was used for NR 100
biological surface desulfurization of ground tire rubber. The Zinc oxide 4
bonding states, element content, and contact angle measure- Stearic acid 2
ment were characterized to evaluate the surface of GTR after Carbon Black N330 30
treatment. The cure characteristics, crosslink density, mechan- Accelerator DPG 0.6
ical properties, and dynamic mechanical analysis of NR/GTR Accelerator MBTS 1.2
and NR/DGTR were examined. SEM studies of tensile frac- Sulfur 2
ture surface were used to evaluate interface and coherency GTR or DGTR Variable (0,10,
between DGTR and NR matrix. 20, 30 or 40)

Experimental Characterization and measurements

Materials GTR size distribution studies

Natural rubber was supplied by Xishuang Banna Eastwind
Farmland, China. The GTR used in this study was supplied
by Puyang Rubber Factory, Henan Province, China. Carbon
Black N330 was obtained from Tianjin Dolphin Carbon
Black Development Co. Thiobacillus sp. strain was isolated
from the soil samples of sulfur-rich coal mine in Sichuan
province, China.
Biological desulfurization process
The compounds of the medium were (g/L): KH2PO4, 4.0;
K2HPO4·3H2O, 4.0; MgSO4·7H2O, 0.8; NH4Cl, 0.4; CaCl2,
0.01, and Na2S2O3·5H2O, 10.0. The medium had been auto-
claved at 115 °C before the incubation and the cultivation
condition was at 30 °C and pH at 6.5, with stirring at 175 rpm.
The inoculum of Thiobacillus sp. strain was 10 % (v/v).
Before desulfurization, GTR was immerged in 75 % ethanol
(v/v) for 24 h in order to kill the microorganisms attaching on
it and to remove harmful additives. After 3 days’ incubation,
GTR was added into culture medium. After 20 days’ desul-
furization, DGTR was filtered out and washed by distilled
water for an hour.
Preparation of rubber compounds
Raw NR was masticated on the two-roll mill and then
blended with other additives and various contents of GTR
or DGTR for 10 min. The basic formulation was listed in
Table 1. Rubber compounds were vulcanized on a platen
press at 15 MPa and 150 °C according to ASTM D 2084–
07. Optimum cure time was determined from an Oscillating
Disk Rheometer. Dumbbell-shaped tensile specimens were
punched out from the compression molded sheets along the
mill grain direction.
The size distribution of GTR was analyzed using a laser particle
size distribution analyzer (LS-Pop3, OMEC Technology Co.,
Ltd., Zhuhai, China).
Microorganism biomass
The Growth of the microorganism in the medium was moni-
tored by optical density at 600 nm (XSZ-H3 binocular bio-
logical microscope, Chongqing Optical Instrument Factory,
China).
XPS analysis
XPS measurement was carried out using a Thermo Electron
EscalabI250 instrument to evaluate the elements contents
and bonding states on the surface of GTR before and after
biological modification. Binding energies were corrected to
the carbon 1 s peak located at 285.0 eV.
Water contact angle measurement
One method to appraise surface properties was the water
contact angle measurement. When water was applied to the
surface, the outmost surface layers interacted with the water.
Hydrophobic surface with low free energy gave a high contact
angle with water and wet surface with high-energy allowed
the drop to spread that gave a low contact angle. The mea-
surement of the contact angle of water was carried out at 25 °C
(OCA15EC, dataphysics, Germany) and the values for the
contact angles were averaged over 5 different water drops.
Sol fraction measurement
The samples were trapped in a copper net and immersed in
acetone for 24 h so as to extract polar substrates and then dried
J Polym Res (2012) 19:9864 Page 3 of 7

in a vacuum oven at 50 °C. The sol fractions before and after
desulfurization were obtained by 72 h Soxhlet extraction
method using toluene as a solvent. The weights of samples
were recorded before and after the extraction.
Determination of crosslink density
The determination of crosslink density of the vulcanized
rubber compounds were carried out using a swelling meth-
od. A test specimen, about 0.05 g, was immersed in 100 mL
of toluene at a controlled temperature of 30 °C for 72 h.
Excess solvent on the surface of the specimen was removed
by blotting with filter paper. The weights of swollen speci-
mens were measured. The crosslink densities of the rubber
vulcanizates were determined by the Flory–Rehner equation
[17, 18]:
1nð1  v2 Þ þ v2 þ cv22
ve ¼   1  ð1Þ
Vs v23  0:5v2
Result and discussion
Morphology and particle size distribution of GTR
Figure 1 showed the particle size distribution of the GTR
used in this work. Most of the GTR particles were smaller
than 100 μm, and 74 % of the particles were in the range
30 μm to 75 μm, mainly concentrated at 50 μm.
Growth of microorganisms
The growth curve of microorganisms (Fig. 2) showed that in
the first 3 days of incubation, the microorganisms grew up
naturally with low biomass (O.D. 600 nm). GTR and glucose
were added into culture medium at the 3rd day and desulfur-
ization was allowed to proceed for the next 20 days. From 3rd
day to 5th day, the biomass almost remained unchanged,
because the residual chemicals in GTR prevented Thiobacillus
sp. growing. After 5th day, Thiobacillus sp. was adapted to the
environment, so biomass rapidly increased. The biomass
reached a maximum value at the 10th day, and then gradually
decreased because of consumption of nutrients.

Where ve was the crosslink density, Vs was the molar
volume of the swelling solvent, v2 was the volume frac-
tion of toluene, and χ was the polymer solvent interaction
parameter. The interaction parameter for NR-toluene sys-
tem was 0.39.
Mechanical properties studies
Mechanical properties were measured at room temperature
according to ASTM D412 (tensile strength) and ASTM
D624 (tear strength). Mechanical data were averaged over
four specimens.
DMA analysis
Element content and bonding states analysis
XPS analysis was used to detect the variation of chemical
composition of the GTR surface after treatment. Surface com-
positions determined from XPS analysis of GTR before and
after desulfurization were summarized in Table 2. The result
showed that oxygen content on the surface of DGTR in-
creased by 30 %. The oxidization reaction might be catalyzed
by enzymes in the microorganisms, improving the surface
activity and reprocessing ability of desulfurated rubber.
Structural changes in sulfide bonds on the surface of
GTR before and after treatment were shown in Fig. 3. Three
second splits of S 2p peaks at 162.3, 163.7, and 165.7 eV
were assigned as the bonding energy for S-C, S-S, and S-O

The dynamic mechanical properties of NR composites were

measured by using a 01 dB-Metravib VA3000, France. A test
specimen for DMA was cut from molded sheets approximate-
ly 2.0 mm thick. The tests were run in tension mode at a fixed
frequency of 1 Hz and strain amplitude of 1 %. The temper-
ature range was from −100 °C to 100 °C, and the heating rate
was 3 °C/min.

Scanning electron microscopy

The morphology of tensile fracture surface of NR/DGTR

and NR/GTR were observed with a Hitachi S-4700 SEM,
Japan. The fracture surfaces of specimen were vacuum-
plated with gold for electrical conduction. Fig. 1 Particle size distribution of GTR
Page 4 of 7 J Polym Res (2012) 19:9864

Fig. 3 Structural changes in sulfide bonds on the surface of GTR

Fig. 2 Growth of microorganisms during cultivation (GTR was added before and after treatment
on the 3rd day)

crosslink scission occurred in GTR, the sol fraction was low

bonds, respectively [19]. The formation of S-O bonds was
not observed on the surface of GTR. After treatment, it was
found that the frequency of S-S bonds and S-C bonds were
decreased by 18.3 % and 42.3 % respectively and the
formation of S-O bonds was observed on the surface of
DGTR. The result showed that cross-linked sulfur bonds
were partly cleaved and converted to sulfate or oxygen-
containing sulfur-based groups. So it resulted in an increase
in oxygen content and a decrease in sulfur content. The
introduction of oxygen containing functional groups on the
surface of GTR corresponded to the increase in surface
energy.
Wettability of GTR and DGTR
because the microbial desulfurization only happened on GTR
surface down to a depth of several micrometers, and the inner
parts of the GTR remained unchanged.
Cure characteristics
The effects of GTR and DGTR loading on the cure charac-
teristics were shown in Fig. 5. From Fig. 5, the minimum
torque changed slightly with the increase of DGTR content,
but rose with increasing GTR content. This indicated that it
was more difficult to process compounds containing GTR
compared with compounds containing DGTR. The reason
was that cross-linked structure of GTR restricted the move-
ment of molecular chains and adversely affected reprocessing

Water contact angle measurement was used to appraise the

wettability of GTR surface before and after treatment. From
Fig. 4, the contact angle of GTR was 120.5°, which revealed
the hydrophobic character of GTR. The water contact angle
of DGTR decreased down to 93.5°, implied that DGTR was
much more hydrophilic than GTR due to the oxidization
desulfurization reaction on the surface of DGTR.

Sol fraction

The desulfurization degree of GTR was evaluated by soluble

fraction. The sol fraction of GTR was 4.69 % and rose to
7.63 % after desulfurization, increased by 63 %. Even though

Table 2 Element con-

tent of GTR before and Element GTR DGTR
after treatment as
determined by XPS C (%) 96.41 95.79
O (%) 2.63 3.42
S (%) 0.96 0.79
Fig. 4 Water contact angle measurement of GTR and DGTR
J Polym Res (2012) 19:9864
Fig. 5 Minimum torque and maximum torque vs. waste rubber load-
ing in the NR matrix
performance, so the increase in GTR loading might reduce the
flow to matrix and consequently increase the torque, resulting
in higher viscosity of the compounds.
The maximum torque remained stable with variable GTR
loading, while it was lower with an increase of DGTR
loading. The torque with DGTR compounds could be
explained that partial rupture of cross-linked structure and
the formation of smaller chains on DGTR surface due to
desulfurization process act as a plasticizer and allow the
rubber to regain mobility for better reprocess ability, de-
creasing the viscosity and torque.
Crosslink density
Crosslink density of NR vulcanizates filled with various
waste rubber content were shown in Fig. 6. The crosslink
density decreased with the waste rubber loading increasing,
Fig.6 Cross-link density vs. waste rubber loading in NR matrix
Page 5 of 7
because sulfur migrated from matrix to particles in the
revulcanization process due to the higher sulfur concentra-
tion of gum NR, result in a decline in the crosslink density
of NR composites. Compared with NR/GTR vulcanizates,
crosslink density of NR/DGTR vulcanizates was lower,
because of the migration of sulfur being obstructed by
GTR with crosslink structure. After desulfurization, sulfur
content and cross-linked structure on DGTR surface was
reduced, so sulfur migrating from matrix to DGTR became
much easier.
Mechanical properties
The tensile strength, elongation at break, and tear strength
were used to evaluate the mechanical properties of the
systems. Generally, materials tended to become weak and
brittle with increasing loading of GTR or DGTR [20, 21].
The effect of the waste rubber content on the tensile
strength and the elongation at break were shown in Figs. 7
and 8. With the amount of waste rubber loading increasing,
a deterioration of tensile strength and elongation at break of
NR composites was observed, probably due to the uncon-
tinuous and imperfect structure in the blends. It was clear
that NR/DGTR composites had much better mechanical
properties than that of NR/GTR composites at the same
loading, because of the treatment of waste rubber. Although
devulcanization reaction only occurred on the surface of
GTR, better compatibility between the matrix and DGTR
led to better properties of NR/DGTR composites. Up to a 10
loading of DGTR, the composites retained 91.7 % of its
original strength and 92.7 % of its elongation at break.
The effect of the waste rubber content on the tear strength
was shown in Fig. 9. An improvement in tear resistance was
obtained by the addition of waste rubber to the NR matrix,
when waste rubber content was no more than 30 phr loading.
An interpenetrating network structure might exist in such
blends after revulcanization. The tear strength of compounds
Fig. 7 Tensile strength vs. waste rubber loading in NR matrix
Page 6 of 7 J Polym Res (2012) 19:9864

Fig. 8 Elongation at break vs. waste rubber loading in NR matrix

containing DGTR was much higher than that of the com-
pounds with GRP because of more active sites existing on
the surface of DGTR.
Fig. 10 Temperature dependence of loss factor of NR composites
filled with waste rubber at 40 loading content
SEM observation

Dynamic mechanical properties SEM photographs of tensile fracture surfaces of NR com-

posites filled with 30 phr GTR and DGTR were showed in
Figure 10 showed the temperature dependence of loss factor Fig. 11. Figure 11 (a) showed that particle had been pulled
(tanδ) of NR composites filled with GTR or DGTR at a
loading of 40 phr. A remarkable decreased in tanδ peak value
and area of NR composites filled with waste rubber could be
observed, indicating that the addition of waste rubber reduces
the internal friction losses of molecular chains in the glass
transition zone. Compared with the NR/GTR composites, the
tanδ peak value and area of NR vulcanizates filled with DGTR
had a further decrease, suggesting that the surface of DGTR
was more chemically reactive and had better adhesion with the
NR matrix.

Fig. 11 SEM photographs of tensile fracture surfaces of a NR/GTR,

Fig.9 Tear strength vs. waste rubber loading in NR matrix and b NR/DGTR
J Polym Res (2012) 19:9864
out and a clear gap could be observed between GTR and the
matrix. The result indicated that the adhesion of GTR to the
NR matrix was poor due to crosslink structure of GTR. It
could be seen from Fig. 11 (b), there was no void between
DGTR and the matrix. NR/DGTR composites had much
better compatibility and phase separation than that of NR/
GTR. It was agreement with the revulcanization and further
crosslink reaction between DGTR and NR matrix due to
much more active sites on the surface of DGTR after desul-
furization. So the interface region between DGTR and the
matrix could withstand a higher strength and deformation.
Conclusion
The surface desulfurization of GTR had been realized with
biological treatment by Thiobacillus sp., for improving interfa-
cial adhesion. After treatment, oxygen content on the surface of
waste rubber increased by 30 % and cross-linked sulfur bonds
were partly cleaved and converted to sulfate or oxygen-
containing sulfur-based groups. The ration of S-S bonds and
S-C bonds were respectively decreased by 18.3 % and 42.3 %.
The formation of S-O bonds was observed. The contact angle
of GTR was 120.5° and decreased down to 93.5° after treat-
ment. The lower crosslink density was obtained for NR/DGTR
vulcanizates and that was attributed to the migration of sulfur
being obstructed by GTR with crosslink structure and lower
sulfur content of DGTR. The improvement in mechanical
properties was observed for NR/DGTR vulcanizates because
of the enhanced interfacial interaction between DGTR and NR
matrix. The results measured by DMA and SEM studies further
indicated that NR/DGTR composites had lower internal fric-
tion losses of molecular chain and better interface coherence
and homogeneity between the DGTR and matrix.
Acknowledgements The project was supported by National High
Technology Research and Development Program of China (No.
2006AA06Z367), National Nature Science Foundation of China (No.
50673009), and Nature Science Foundation of Beijing (No. 8122032).
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