Mechanical and morphology characteristics of natural rubber-styrene butadiene rubber (NR-SBR) blends in the presence of natural microbentonite

Abstract

Natural rubber (NR) has been the world renewable natural elastomer produced mainly in South East Asia from the sap of rubber tree (hevea brasiliensis). However it only exported to manufacturing countries for production of various engineering and specialty rubber products. Blending of the natural rubber with synthetic rubber such as styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) is a mean to improve engineering specification of the NR, especially due to exposure of mineral oils during its service life. Whereas natural microbentonite functions not only as filler but also as coagulant breaker in both SIR-10 and SBR matrices, which improves miscibility of the blends. In this work blending of Indonesian natural rubber (NR: SIR-10) with styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) were carried out in reflux reactor in xylene solution in the presence of various loading of natural microbentonite as fillers. Miscibility of the blends were measured from their mechanical properties as well as morphology of their fracture surfaces using electron microscopy (SEM). It was found that optimum loading of microbentonite in the NR/SBR (weight ratio: 50/50) blend was 3 per hundred rubber (phr), which showed good adhesion of the rubber matrices onto the filler surface and without any agglomeration.