Determination of unsaturation of synthetic and natural rubbers by means of iodine monochloride

Abstract Precise analytical methods are developed using iodine monochloride for the determination of unsaturation in polybutadiene and polyisoprene and their copolymers with styrene. The complicating side reactions, splitting out and substitution, as well as the influence of the solvent employed are investigated in detail. It is concluded that GR‐S at various conversions has the theoretical unsaturation. Emulsion polybutadiene exhibits 97 to 98% of the theoretical unsaturation, emulsion polyisoprene 97% sodium polybutadiene 92%, and sodium polyisoprene 85%. The amount of unsaturation in these last two polymers as well as in the sodium copolymer of butadiene and styrene (75:25) is considerable less than theoretically expected.