Highly saturated nitrile rubber, process for producing same, vulcanizable rubber composition, aqueous emulsion and adhesive composition

摘要

A nitrile group-containing highly saturated copolymer rubber which is a product obtained by hydrogenating the conjugated diene portion of an unsaturated nitrile-conjugated diene copolymer. The highly saturated copolymer rubber has an alkylthio group having 12 to 16 carbon atoms, which include at least three tertiary carbon atoms, and having a sulfur atom which is directly bound to at least one of the tertiary carbon atom, and the highly saturated copolymer rubber further has a Mooney viscosity of 15 to 200 and an iodine value not larger than 80. The highly saturated copolymer rubber is produced copolymerizing an unsaturated nitrile, a conjugated diene and an optional copolymerizable monomer by using as a molecular weight modifier an alkylthiol compound having 12 to 16 carbon atoms, which include at least three tertiary carbon atoms, and having a sulfur atom which is directly bound to at least one of the tertiary carbon atoms; and then, hydrogenating the thus-obtained copolymer. The highly saturated copolymer rubber exhibits a high-rate vulcanizability when vulcanized with a sulfur-containing vulcanizer.