Collagen hydrolysates obtained from swim bladder of northern fish as modifiers of cold-resistant rubber for sealing purposes

Abstract

During development of new elastomeric materials, it is promising to use environmentally friendly additives of natural origin, for example, products of hydrolysis of various proteins, which improve operational properties of the new materials. In this study, collagen hydrolysates obtained from the swim bladder of northern fish species using the alkali-salt method followed by lyophilization were used as a modifying additive. The hydrolysates were used in rubbers based on frost-resistant epichlorohydrin rubber (GECO) HYDRIN T6000 and nitrile butadiene rubbers. It was found that the modifying additive leads to an increase of curing rate, reduction of the technological cycle of production of rubber products and gives the rubbers higher relaxation properties while retaining other characteristics. The protein nature of the collagen hydrolysates and structural changes occurring during rubber modification, which consist in the chemical interaction of the hydrolysate with rubber macromolecules, have been confirmed by FTIR spectroscopy. Using the nitrile-butadiene rubber, it has been shown that the presence of collagen hydrolysate leads to a denser network of vulcanization bonds of the elastomeric material.