Grafting silica onto reduced graphene oxide via hydrosilylation for comprehensive rubber applications: Molecular simulation and experimental study

Abstract

AbstractThe development of multifunctional rubber composites and the dispersion of fillers are always a focus in the industrial field of tires. In this work, supported by predictions from molecular simulations, reduced graphene oxide grafted with silica (rGO‐g‐SiO2) is fabricated through hydrosilylation. Structural and morphological characterization shows that SiO2 is present at the rGO surface. rGO‐g‐SiO2 was subsequently applied to enhance the performance of solution polymerized styrene butadiene rubber (SSBR) composites. As predicted from simulations, the mechanical and thermal properties of rGO‐g‐SiO2/SSBR are found to be improved due to an enhanced interfacial interaction and higher degree of phonon matching. In particular, with a 1.5% weight percentage of rGO, the reinforcing index and thermal conductivity of 1.5%‐rGO‐g‐SiO2/SSBR are found to be 168.7% and 114.0% higher than that for 1.5%‐rGO/SiO2/SSBR (physical mixture), respectively. The reinforced integrated performance is promising for the potential application of rGO‐g‐SiO2 as a filler for rubber composites.