Mechanical and Thermal Properties of Rubber Toughened Carbon Black-Filled Polyester Composite

Abstract

The influences of Carbon Black (CB) as filler for rubber toughened polyester composite on thermal properties were investigated, in consideration for applications such as automotive parts and integrated circuits (IC) encapsulations. The usage of CB as filler is one of the efforts in increasing and varying the use of rubber and unsaturated polyester thermoset in composite materials. Unsaturated polyester was mixed with 3% liquid natural rubber (LNR) as toughening agent and CB, which were varied from 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10% using mechanical stirrer and moulded by using the open mould technique. Impact testing was conducted for mechanical property and it was found that the addition of CB increased the impact strength by 87%. Thermal properties of the composites were evaluated using a thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The TGA curves of the composites were quite similar, but there were slight increment in thermal stability for several CB filled composites compared to the neat polyester matrix. DSC analysis showed that all the composites were fully cured, and CB filled composites had a slower heat flow rate compared to the neat rubber toughened composite.