Understandably, this phenomenon would be amplified when weathering up to 988 h as in the case of the present study. These cracks act as a pathway to the leaching of water and more chemical attacks into the bulk of the specimen. The intensity of cracks in SBR is aligned with its poor resistance to crack growth despite having a strong resistance to crack formation. In the case of NR, cracks are formed relatively quickly but grow rather slowly. This can be confirmed from the seemingly protected core of NR vulcanizates as seen in FTIR results.