Devulcanization
Rubber in rubber powder and granulates is vulcanized: the long polymer chains are crosslinked with sulphur bridges. Those bridges gives to rubber from tires its viscoelastic properties. Several methods have been proposed to break selectively those sulphur bonds, to retrieve a "virgin" elastic rubber.
The principe is to emit microwaves at a wavelength that will specifically be absorbed by S-S and C-S bonds, in order to break these bonds.
Literature
Literature
An appropriate bacteria secretes an enzyme to utilize the elemental or organic sulfur available in the environment for its growth. For rubber granulates, it means that the sulphur bonds will be broken, leading to devulcanized rubber.
Literature
See other shaping & transformation possibilities.
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