Lin Li, Chen Yang, Lingwen Li, Weiwen Quan, Yuanxiang Wang, Yiqiu Tan, Yunliang Li, Zhenyu J. Zhang
To explore the aging mechanism of (Styrene Butadiene Styrene) and CR (Crumb Rubber) composite-modified asphalt in a multi-source environment, the characteristics of functional group changes in the infrared spectroscopy of SBS and CR modifiers as well as their single and composite modified asphalts under thermal, UV, and coupled aging were tested using Attenuated Total Reflection–Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) technology. It was found that SBS and CR modifiers exhibited significant yellowing degradation after aging due to high-energy effects, causing abstraction of α-hydrogen from polybutadiene via oxidation, initiating radical chain reactions. The addition of SBS and CR to asphalt significantly increased the absorption peaks of 966 cm−1 polybutadiene and 699 cm−1 polystyrene. However, certain labile bonds in the modified asphalt, such as the C-H bond, C-C bond, and C=C double bond in polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, were easily broken to produce reactive free radicals under aging, which reacted chemically with other components to produce new sulfoxide and carbonyl groups. Overall, the aging reaction of the asphalt was a dual sequential oxidation process. Under normal temperature conditions in the early stage, a large number of sulfoxides were oxidized. In the later stage of the reaction, as the concentration and persistence of active free radicals increased, the oxidation reaction of the asphalt benzyl carbon also enhanced significantly, ultimately generating carbonyls.