Abstract
Abstract To curtail flammability risks and improve material properties, flame retardants (FRs) and fillers are mixed into rubbers. High loadings of aluminum trihydroxide (ATH) and carbon black (CB) are the most used FRs and reinforcing additive, respectively, in rubbers. To reduce loading without losing mechanical properties, partial substitution of ATH as well as CB by low amounts of multilayer graphene (MLG) nanoparticles is investigated. The high aspect ratio MLG is made of ten graphene sheets. In polybutadiene/chloroprene (BR/CR) nanocomposites 3 phr MLG replaced 15 phr CB and/or 3 phr ATH. Material and mechanical properties as well as fire behavior of the nanocomposites are compared to BR/CR with 20 phr CB both with and without 50 phr ATH. MLG appears as a promising nanofiller to improve the functional properties: replacement of CB improved rheological, curing, and mechanical properties; substitution of ATH improved nanocomposite properties without affecting flame retardancy.
Highlights
Rubber materials are widely employed due to their valuable material properties; as synthetic polymers, they are flammable and can burn with high fire loads, which can lead to catastrophic damage andA major drawback to conventional fillers such as carbon black (CB) is the relatively high loading needed to yield desirable properties, which is why nanofillers are interesting alternatives: nanoparticles reinforce elastomers at lower loadings due to their larger surface area and better aspect ratio compared to fillers such as CB
This study investigates the use of multilayer graphene (MLG), which is usually called graphene, in multicomponent rubber blends based on BR with CR (BR/CR) and its effects on the mechanical and flame-retardant properties
The replacement of aluminum trihydroxide (ATH) and CB with MLG led to increased flame retardancy of BR/CR, as an limiting oxygen index (LOI) of 38.4 vol% was reached by BR/CR/ATH47/MLG3/CB5
Summary
Rubber materials are widely employed due to their valuable material properties; as synthetic polymers, they are flammable and can burn with high fire loads, which can lead to catastrophic damage andA major drawback to conventional fillers such as CB is the relatively high loading needed to yield desirable properties, which is why nanofillers are interesting alternatives: nanoparticles reinforce elastomers at lower loadings due to their larger surface area and better aspect ratio compared to fillers such as CB. Rubber materials are widely employed due to their valuable material properties; as synthetic polymers, they are flammable and can burn with high fire loads, which can lead to catastrophic damage and. Previous investigations have proven the efficacy of nanofillers at low loadings, thereby demonstrating improvements in mechanical and flame-retardant properties: examples include the use of modified clay [4,5], silica [6,7], carbon nanotubes [8,9], and graphene [10,11,12]. The use of multilayer graphene (MLG) has been proven as an effective multifunctional filler for polyvinyl alcohol– polyaniline hydrogels [13], acrylonitrile–butadiene–styrene [14], chlorine–isobutyl–isoprene, hydrogenated acrylonitrile–butadiene, nitrile–butadiene, styrene–butadiene, and natural rubbers [15,16,17,18,19].
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