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Updated: Jul 20, 2026

Synthesis of Terpolymers at Mild Temperatures Using Dynamic Sulfur Bonds in Poly(S-Divinylbenzene)
Published on: May 20, 2019
Interaction of zinc oxide clusters with molecules related to the sulfur vulcanization of polyolefins ("rubber")
1Institut für Chemie, Technische Universität Berlin, Sekr. C2, 10623 Berlin, Germany. steudel@sulfur-research.de
Abstract:
The vulcanization of rubber by sulfur is a large-scale industrial process that is only poorly understood, especially the role of zinc oxide, which is added as an activator. We used the highly symmetrical cluster Zn(4)O(4) (T(d)) as a model species to study the thermodynamics of the initial interaction of various vulcanization-related molecules with ZnO by DFT methods, mostly at the B3LYP/6-31+G* level. The interaction energy of Lewis bases with Zn(4)O(4) increases in the following order: COCSSH.
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