Effect of Epoxidized Palm Oils Loading on the Crosslink Density and Rebound Resilience Characteristic of SBR Vulcanizates

Abstract

The study about natural oils as processing aids in rubber was reported by several researchers for the past few years. The natural oils like rice bran oils, soybean oils, sunflower oils, vegetables oils and palm oils can be used as processing oils in rubber compounding [1-3]. These natural oils have been reported to have certain advantages compared to the petroleum based processing oils. In this study the potential of epoxidized palm oils (EPO) as additive and processing oils in carbon black filled styrene butadiene rubber was investigated. The main ingredients used were butadiene rubber (SBR), epoxidized palm oil (EPO) and carbon black. The vulcanized SBR rubber is then undergo several testing like swelling test, hardness and rebound resilience. An attempt was made to see whether the amount of EPO added to the SBR vulcanizates will affect the rebound resilience and swelling behaviour of the SBR vulcanizates. From this study, it was found that the compound contained higher EPO content tend to have lower rebound resilience, similar trend can be observed for hardness properties. While the crosslink density of the vulcanizates is decrease as the EPO content increases.