A curative for epoxidized plant-based oils and epoxidized natural rubber is created from the reaction between a naturally occurring polyfunctional acid and an epoxidized plant-based oil is disclosed. The curative may be used to produce porosity-free castable resins and vulcanize rubber formulations based on epoxidized natural rubber. Materials made from disclosed materials may be advantageously used as leather substitutes.

A modified conjugated diene-based polymer is produced by reacting a conjugated diene-based polymer having an alkali metal or an alkali-earth metal at a terminal of the polymer with a compound represented by formula (1). R.sup.1 and R.sup.2 independently represent a hydrocarbyl group having 20 or fewer carbon atoms. R.sup.3 represents a substituted alkyl group having 20 or fewer carbon atoms prepared through substitution of at least one of a hydrogen atom and CH.sub.2 of an alkyl group by a group containing only at least one heteroatom selected from the group consisting of nitrogen, phosphorus, oxygen, and sulfur, or a monovalent aromatic group having 20 or fewer carbon atoms and containing at least one element selected from the group consisting of nitrogen, phosphorus, oxygen, and sulfur, with the proviso that R.sup.3 does not have active hydrogen. R.sup.4 represents an alkanediyl group having 20 or fewer carbon atoms. n is 1 or 2

##STR00001##

A curative for epoxidized plant-based oils and epoxidized natural rubber is created from the reaction between a naturally occurring polyfunctional acid and an epoxidized plant-based oil is disclosed. The curative may be used to produce at least one of six different materials, wherein each type of material may be configured as a thermosetting elastomer that is crosslinked with -hydroxyester linkages. The materials may be configured as a leather-like material, a foam material, a molded elastomer, a coating, an adhesive, and/or a rigid or semi-rigid material. Illustrative articles made from any combination of the six materials may be recycled using a mechano-chemical process to de-crosslink the thermosetting elastomer.

A water-based treatment agent of the present invention is a water-based treatment agent for producing a coating of a rubber-reinforcing member. The water-based treatment agent of the present invention includes: a rubber latex; and at least one selected from the group consisting of a compound A represented by the following formula (1) and a compound B represented by the following formula (2).

##STR00001##

A curative for epoxidized plant-based oils and epoxidized natural rubber is created from the reaction between a naturally occurring polyfunctional acid and an epoxidized plant-based oil is disclosed. The curative may be used to produce porosity-free castable resins and vulcanize rubber formulations based on epoxidized natural rubber. Materials made from disclosed materials may be advantageously used as leather substitutes.

Polyhydric phenol resins (X) containing a polydiene skeleton and a structural unit represented by formula (1):

##STR00001##

wherein R.sup.p1 and R.sup.p3 each independently represent a hydrogen atom, a methyl group, or an ethyl group, R.sup.p2 represents a hydrogen atom, a methyl group, or a bond, one of X.sup.1 and X.sup.2 represents a hydroxy group, the other represents a monovalent group represented by the formula (2) below, and * represents a bond, and the CC bond structure in formula (1) is a part of the polydiene skeleton,

##STR00002##

wherein R.sup.S each independently represents a substituent, * represents a bond, and n represents a number of 0 to 4, afford cured products exhibiting a favorable toughness.

A purpose of the present invention is to provide a tire assuring that clogging of snow and sticking of snow are inhibited, particularly a tire assuring that clogging of snow and sticking of snow can be inhibited and having good performance on ice and snow and abrasion resistance without depending on the tread pattern form while maintaining wet grip performance and abrasion resistance. The tire is composed of a rubber composition which comprises a rubber component comprising a modified butadiene rubber and silica and has a pure water contact angle of from 125 to 140.

An aqueous adhesive composition for treating a reinforcing fiber for bonding to a thermosetting polymer matrix and products made therefrom such as power transmission belts. The adhesive composition includes: water as the solvent or dispersing medium; a polyelectrolyte co-curable with the polymer matrix; a primer material compatible with the fiber and co-curable with the polyelectrolyte; and optionally a rubber curative compatible with the polyelectrolyte and the polymer matrix. A fiber-reinforced, composite polymer system may thus include a thermosetting polymer matrix, a reinforcing fiber embedded therein, and an adhesive composition coating the fiber; the adhesive composition including a polyelectrolyte co-curable with the polymer matrix and a primer material compatible with the fiber and co-curable with the polyelectrolyte. The adhesive composition may include a curative compatible with the polyelectrolyte. In one preferred embodiment, the invention is an aqueous adhesive composition including water, an epoxy resin, a maleated polybutadiene derivative, and a curative.

A process for recovering wastes of a polymeric composition including at least one peroxide-curable polymer and at least one peroxidic crosslinking agent, which includes compounding the wastes with at least one antioxidant agent suitable for sulfur-vulcanized elastomeric compositions, at a temperature lower than the decomposition temperature of the at least one peroxide crosslinking agent. The compounding of the polymeric wastes with the antioxidant agent is carried out at a temperature lower than the decomposition temperature of the peroxide crosslinking agent, so as to avoid any premature activation of the crosslinking agent. The process is particularly suitable for compositions based on elastomeric polyolefins, more preferably for elastomeric ethylene copolymers such as ethylene-propylene copolymers (EPR) and ethylene-propylene-diene terpolymers (EPDM), which can be processed at relatively low temperatures, much lower than the decomposition temperatures of the most common peroxide crosslinking agents.

A method of devulcanizing vulcanized rubber is described. The method includes steps of: (a) providing at least one vulcanized rubber composition; (b) grinding the vulcanized rubber into chips or pellets; (c) mixing the ground rubber obtained from step (b) in such a way as to homogenize the form and temperature of same; (d) carrying out a non-degrading mechanical treatment on the mixed rubber at the end of step (c) to obtain a polymeric composite. Also described is a thermoplastic material and an elastomeric mixture which comprise, in the formulation of same, at least one polymeric composite obtained by this method of devulcanization.