Curing, mechanical, and tribological properties of hydrogenated nitrile butadiene rubber reinforced with Al2O3 nanoparticles

Abstract

AbstractA novel hydrogenated nitrile butadiene rubber (HNBR) composite filled with organically modified Al2O3 nanoparticle was fabricated. The effects of nanoparticle Al2O3 (nano‐Al2O3) with different particle sizes on the curing, mechanical, and tribological properties of the HNBR composites were studied. Nano‐Al2O3 with different particle sizes (i.e. 10, 50, 100, and 200 nm) was filled into the HNBR in this work. Attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared (ATR‐FTIR) spectroscopy was used to investigate the degree of grafting between modified nano‐Al2O3 and rubber matrix. Universal material testing machine was used to study the mechanical properties of the HNBR composites. The tribological properties of the HNBR composites were tested by a ballon‐on‐disk tribometer. The wear morphology of the HNBR composite surface was examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The test results reveal that the nano‐Al2O3 as filler of HNBR composite promoted the vulcanization process, improved tensile and compressive strength, and increased hysteresis energy density and the damping coefficient. And the mechanical properties of the HNBR composite improved gradually with the decrease of nano‐Al2O3 particle size. The friction and wear test results show that the addition of nano‐Al2O3 greatly reduced the dry friction coefficient and specific wear rate of HNBR composites, and the friction coefficient and wear rate decreased gradually with the decrease of nano‐Al2O3 size. The HNBR composite filled with 10 nm nano‐Al2O3 had the better mechanical properties and anti‐wear performance due to that the 10 nm nano‐Al2O3 could form denser cross‐linked network.