Improvement of Slip Resistance of Rubber Sole by Halogenation

Rubber and thermoplastic rubber occupies a considerable extent as bottom sole material in shoes. A surface treatment called “halogenation” is offered on these types of soles to improve adhesion strength between upper and outsole. This is a treatment on Thermo plastic Styrenebutadiene-styrene rubber shoe sole (S1) with a 0.5% wt. solution of trichloroisocyanuric acid (TCI) in methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) to introduce chlorinated and oxidized moieties on the rubber surface which modifies the surface of the sole for better adhesion with polyurethane adhesive. This mechanism of surface modification is made use of to improve slip resistance property of the soling material. In this study slip resistance in terms of co-efficient of friction (COF) of untreated and treated soles were measured by a slip resistance tester (Model: SATRA STM 603). The results showed that chlorination treatment made on thermo plastic styrene-butadiene-styrene rubber sole with 0.5% wt TCI produces a noticeable increase in co-efficient of friction values due to increase its surface energy, polarity and surface roughness on the rubber surface.