Effect of filler type and composition on the mechanical, thermal, and dynamic mechanical properties of PS/SBR vulcanizate

Abstract

Abstract Dynamic vulcanization is an eminent industrial process to enhance the physical, thermal, and rheological properties of polymer composites. The present experimental study comprised the formation of polystyrene (PS) and styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) composites using three different types of fillers, namely, kaolin, talc, and rice husk powder (RHP), whereas dicumylperoxide was added as a cross-linking agent. Further, the filler loading was varied from 0 to 20 parts per hundred of resin (phr) for all types (i.e. RHP). The mechanical (i.e. tensile strength, elongation at break, and impact strength), thermal (i.e. melting point and softening point index), and dynamic mechanical properties of each composite were measured and compared with each other. The results indicate that kaolin-based vulcanizate showed better mechanical, thermal, and dynamic mechanical properties compared to that of talc and RHP vulcanizate. Furthermore, it can be observed that the mechanical, thermal, and dynamic mechanical properties of PS/SBR vulcanizates are the function of filler loadings for all three types of fillers (i.e. kaolin, talc, and RHP). In addition, high-temperature storage properties (i.e. loss modulus and storage modulus) were also investigated for better design and material optimization. The study may be helpful to the tribological applications in material selection and design.