Abstract
Nanocomposites of 80/20 (w/w) natural rubber (NR)/styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) blend with four loadings of either nanosized titanium dioxide (nTiO2) or polystyrene-encapsulated nTiO2 (PS-nTiO2), ranging from 3 to 9 parts by weight per hundred of rubber (phr), were prepared by latex casting method. The PS-nTiO2 synthesized via in situ differential microemulsion polymerization displayed a core-shell morphology (nTiO2 core and PS shell) with an average diameter of 42 nm. The cure characteristics (scorch time, cure time, and cure rate index), mechanical properties (tensile properties, tear strength, and hardness), thermal stability, glass transition temperature, and morphology of the prepared nanocomposites were quantified and compared. The results showed that the cure characteristics of all the nanocomposites were not significantly changed compared to those of the neat NR/SBR blend. The inclusion of an appropriate amount of either nTiO2 or PS-nTiO2 into the NR/SBR blend apparently improved the tensile strength, modulus at 300% strain, tear strength, hardness, and thermal stability but deteriorated the elongation at break of the nanocomposites. Based on differential scanning calorimetry, the glass transition temperature of all the nanocomposites was similar to that of the neat NR/SBR blend. Moreover, the morphology of the PS-nTiO2-filled rubber nanocomposites fractured surface analyzed by scanning electron microscopy showed an improvement in the interfacial adhesion between the rubber phase and the nanoparticles.
Highlights
High-performance elastomeric materials have been produced by developing multicomponent systems in terms of rubber blend and/or rubber nanocomposites [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16]
The Natural rubber (NR) and Styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) lattices were mixed with curing ingredients and Wingstay L at an ambient temperature according to the recipe given in Table 1 and stirred at 150 rpm using a mechanical stirrer for 30 min
The core-shell structure (Figure 2(b)) with nanosized TiO2 (nTiO2) particles as a core and PS as a shell can be observed after surface modification, suggesting that the nTiO2 were successfully encapsulated by PS via the in situ differential microemulsion polymerization
Summary
High-performance elastomeric materials have been produced by developing multicomponent systems in terms of rubber blend and/or rubber nanocomposites [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16]. Several inorganic nanofillers such as silica [3, 6, 8, 12], organoclay [4, 5], titanium dioxide (TiO2) [2, 11, 12], halloysite nanotubes [13, 14], carbon nanotubes [15], and other nanomaterials [7, 16] have been exploited for preparing rubber nanocomposites This is because the nanofillers can offer high stiffness and strength by inhibiting the propagation of cracks and delaying the breakdown of materials, along with an increase in the thermal stability of nanocomposites [2, 4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17]. The effects of nTiO2 and PS-nTiO2 on the cure characteristics, mechanical properties, thermal stability, glass transition temperature (Tg), and morphology of the 80/20 (w/w) NR/SBR blend nanocomposites were investigated and compared
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