Percolation Phenomenon in Thermal Conductivity of Carbon Black Filled Rubber and Morphology

Abstract

A kind of graphitized carbon black 40B2 was incorporated in natural rubber matrix and vulcanizates were prepared. The content of carbon black varied from 4 to 100phr for 100phr of natural rubber. Thermal conductivity of the CB/rubber composites was studied as a function of CB loadings and temperature. TEM and SEM were employed to explore the morphology of the carbon black and the composites. It was found that percolation phenomenon existed in thermal conductivity of CB/rubber composites at different filler loadings, which was much similar with percolation behavior in electrical conductivity properties of many composites, and the percolation threshold was about 13.63%. The influence of temperature on thermal conductivity was more obviously within the region from the percolation threshold to the volume fraction of 26.2%.However, no great effect could be found on the percolation behavior of the composites in thermal conductivity. The result of TEM indicated that the mean size of CB particles was about 25nm, the maximum size of CB aggregates was about 125nm, and the CB aggregates were multichain in shape. The results of SEM showed that the distribution of CB differed at different filler loadings. Before the percolation threshold, the CB aggregates existed isolatedly, nevertheless at the percolation threshold, some long chains made up of CB aggregates ran through the rubber matrix, which resulted in the rapid increase in thermal conductivity value, and then with the addition of CB loadings, the number of chains increased. When the volume fraction was up to 26.2%, some three dimensional networks formed.