Arrested and delayed rupture of elastomers

In the establishment of the structure of our kinetic theory [1] of bond dissociation (KTBD) for elastomeric failure, we discovered new features that require us to look beyond the KTBD.  First, we are interested in exploring how glassy chain dynamics arrest elastomeric rupture to emphasize that polymer mobility does eventually suppress crack growth and propagation.  Second, under elastic stretching conditions, stepwise stretching enables us to elucidate the elastomeric lifetime as a function of the degree of network stretching and test temperature.  However, the network lifetime becomes variable except when measured at high temperatures.  We found the incubation time for delayed rupture to depend on the timescale involved to impose the network stretching.  This finding highlights the hidden characters of elastomers: their network structure.  It remains a challenge to gain access to structural information that neither stress nor birefringence can directly reveal.