Abstract
Use of sulfur crosslinked nanogels to improve various properties of virgin elastomers was investigated for the first time. Natural rubber (NR) and styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) nanogels were prepared by prevulcanization of the respective rubber lattices. These nanogels were characterized by dynamic light scattering, atomic force microscopy (AFM), solvent swelling, mechanical, and dynamic mechanical property measurements. Intermixing of gel and matrix at various ratios was carried out. Addition of NR gels greatly improved the green strength of SBR, whereas presence of SBR nanogels induced greater thermal stability in NR. For example, addition of 16 phr of NR gel increased the maximum tensile stress value of neat SBR by more than 48%. Noticeable increase in glass transition temperature of the gel filled systems was also observed. Morphology of these gel filled elastomers was studied by a combination of energy dispersive X-ray mapping, transmission electron microscopy, and AFM techniques. Particulate filler composite reinforcement models were used to understand the reinforcement mechanism of these nanogels.
Highlights
Virgin polymers, especially elastomers have inherently low stiffness and strength
In the case of natural rubber (NR) latex gels, it reveals a broad distribution of particle sizes for all the systems studied, with a size range of 122–360 nm, which is within the expected size range reported in the literature [22]
The Zavg for NR gels lies between 205 nm and 221 nm as against 220 nm of the control NR latex
Summary
Especially elastomers have inherently low stiffness and strength. In order to overcome these obvious limitations and to expand their applications in different fields, particulate fillers, such as carbon black, silica, glass, calcium carbonates, carbon nanotubes, nano clays etc. are often added to polymer. It has been shown that dramatic improvements in mechanical and other properties can be achieved by incorporation of a few weight percentages (wt%) of inorganic exfoliated clay minerals consisting of mostly layered silicates in polymer matrices [4,5,6,7,8,9,10]. These are better known as polymer nanocomposites. Similar enhancements in various properties have been reported with other types of nanofillers e.g. multiwalled carbon nanotubes and layered double hydroxides [11, 12]
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