Abstract
A rivet–inspired method of decorating aramid fiber (AF) with silica particles (SiO2) is proposed to produce SiO2@AF hybrid materials that have largely enhanced interfacial interaction with the rubber matrix. AF was firstly surface-modified with polyacrylic acid (PAA) to obtain PAA–AF, and SiO2 was silanized with 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane to obtain APES–SiO2. Then, SiO2@AF was prepared by chemically bonding APES–SiO2 onto the surface of PAA–AF in the presence of dicyclohexylcarbodiimide (DCC) and 4-dimethylaminopyridine (DMAP). With the incorporation of SiO2@AF into the rubber matrix, SiO2@AF hybrid materials with high surface roughness can play a role as ‘rivets’ to immobilize large numbers of rubber chains on the surface. The tear strength and tensile strength of rubber composite that filling 4 phr SiO2@AF are dramatically increased by 97.8% and 89.3% compared to pure rubber, respectively. Furthermore, SiO2@AF has superiority in enhancing the cutting resistance of rubber composites, in contrast with unmodified AF and SiO2. SiO2@AF is suitable to be applied as a novel reinforcing filler in rubber composites for high performance.
Highlights
Natural rubber (NR), an important biopolymer, has been presented as one of the most attractive materials owing to its wonderful properties, such as great elasticity and flexibility, antivirus permeation, low cost and corrosion resistance [1,2,3]
The interfacial adhesion between SiO2 @aramid fiber (AF) and the NR matrix is greatly improved with the incremental fraction of immobilized chains, which results in the improvement of the mechanical properties and cutting resistance of SiO2 @AF/NR composites
The polyacrylic acid (PAA)–AF fibers began to decompose at 180 ◦ C due to the grafting of PAA (Figure 2a), and the weight loss between 500 and 800 ◦ C further decreased to
Summary
Natural rubber (NR), an important biopolymer, has been presented as one of the most attractive materials owing to its wonderful properties, such as great elasticity and flexibility, antivirus permeation, low cost and corrosion resistance [1,2,3]. Hydrophilic SiO2 particles exhibit a rather poor compatibility with hydrophobic rubber, which leads to weak interfacial adhesion between SiO2 and the rubber matrix. Aramid fiber (AF) is an indispensable material in many fields and has become one of most excellent reinforcing fillers for high-performance composites due to its unique properties, for example its low specific density, thermal resistance, super fatigue, ultrahigh strength and modulus, and good chemical stability [12]. SiO2 particles were adsorbed on the AF surface by the electrostatic interaction between the negatively charged carboxyl on the PAA grafting AF (PAA–AF) and the positively charged amino on the APES modified SiO2 particles (APES–SiO2 ). The interfacial adhesion between SiO2 @AF and the NR matrix is greatly improved with the incremental fraction of immobilized chains, which results in the improvement of the mechanical properties and cutting resistance of SiO2 @AF/NR composites.
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