Abstract
Mechanical tests, for example, tensile and hardness tests, are usually used to evaluate the properties of rubber materials. In this work, mechanical properties of selected rubber materials, that is, natural rubber (NR), styrene butadiene rubber (SBR), nitrile butadiene rubber (NBR), and ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM), were evaluated using a near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy technique. Here, NR/NBR and NR/EPDM blends were first prepared. All of the samples were then scanned using a FT-NIR spectrometer and fitted with an integration sphere working in a diffused reflectance mode. The spectra were correlated with hardness and tensile properties. Partial least square (PLS) calibration models were built from the spectra datasets with preprocessing techniques, that is, smoothing and second derivative. This indicated that reasonably accurate models, that is, with a coefficient of determination [R2] of the validation greater than 0.9, could be achieved for the hardness and tensile properties of rubber materials. This study demonstrated that FT-NIR analysis can be applied to determine hardness and tensile values in rubbers and rubber blends effectively.
Highlights
Polymers are one of the most important organic materials
Our work applies Fourier transform near infrared (FT-NIR) spectroscopy to evaluate the mechanical strength of the vulcanized rubbers
This study shows that FT-NIR is a potential method for evaluating the mechanical strength of compound rubber
Summary
Polymers are one of the most important organic materials. Due to their excellent properties, polymers are applied in various fields ranging from everyday life products, for example, containers, coating, shoes, tires, rubber bands, and tubes, to industrial products, for example, construction parts and automotive materials [1, 2]. Natural polyisoprenes have high performance properties that cannot be obtained with synthetic polymers. These properties include resilience, elasticity, abrasion resistance, efficient heat dispersion, and impact resistance [4, 5]. Natural polyisoprenes have been extensively used as raw materials for household, medical, and industrial products, such as gloves, tubes, and tires
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