Abstract
Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is normally added into the rubber compounds as a white pigment and inorganic filler for an improvement of thermal property. TiO2 is also known to have an outstanding photocatalytic activity. This work investigates the properties of natural rubber (NR) compounds filled with 5 phr of nanoTiO2 (n-TiO2). Since the direct incorporation of n-TiO2 into NR encounters incompatibility problem, therefore two types of coupling agent (i.e. bis-(3-triethoxysilylpropyl) tetrasulfide (TESPT) and isopropyl trioleyl titanate (ITT)) are used. The coupling agent loading is varied in a range of 0-20 wt% relative to the n-TiO2. Mooney viscosities and minimum cure torque (ML) of the compounds increase with increasing coupling agent content and the ones with ITT show higher viscosity than the mixes with TESPT. The use of TESPT leads to shorter optimum cure time and higher torque difference compared to the use of ITT. The addition of n-TiO2 results in the improved modulus, reinforcing index and tensile strength compared to the unfilled vulcanizate. The presence of both TESPT and ITT significantly reduces a photodegradation efficiency. The difference in the properties and photocatalytic activity of n-TiO2 filled NR having TESPT and ITT as coupling agent indicates their possible different level of dispersion and interactions at the interphases.
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