Abstract
Without fillers, rubber types such as silicone rubber exhibit poor mechanical, thermal, and electrical properties. Carbon black (CB) is traditionally used as a filler in the rubber matrix to improve its properties, but a high content (nearly 60 per hundred parts of rubber (phr)) is required. However, this high content of CB often alters the viscoelastic properties of the rubber composite. Thus, nowadays, nanofillers such as graphene (GE) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are used, which provide significant improvements to the properties of composites at as low as 2–3 phr. Nanofillers are classified as those fillers consisting of at least one dimension below 100 nanometers (nm). In the present review paper, nanofillers based on carbon nanomaterials such as GE, CNT, and CB are explored in terms of how they improve the properties of rubber composites. These nanofillers can significantly improve the properties of silicone rubber (SR) nanocomposites and have been useful for a wide range of applications, such as strain sensing. Therefore, carbon-nanofiller-reinforced SRs are reviewed here, along with advancements in this research area. The microstructures, defect densities, and crystal structures of different carbon nanofillers for SR nanocomposites are characterized, and their processing and dispersion are described. The dispersion of the rubber composites was reported through atomic force microscopy (AFM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The effect of these nanofillers on the mechanical (compressive modulus, tensile strength, fracture strain, Young’s modulus, glass transition), thermal (thermal conductivity), and electrical properties (electrical conductivity) of SR nanocomposites is also discussed. Finally, the application of the improved SR nanocomposites as strain sensors according to their filler structure and concentration is discussed. This detailed review clearly shows the dependency of SR nanocomposite properties on the characteristics of the carbon nanofillers.
Highlights
Next-generation carbon-based nanofillers have gained great importance owing to their excellent properties that are suited to a wide range of applications, such as strain sensing
The results revealed a synergistic effect in the hybrid, which demonstrated the GE and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) contents in the silicone rubber (SR) matrix increased, the electrical conductivity increased higher electrical conductivity than that of as single components exponentially
These results indicate that the SR/conductive carbon black (CCB)-P-CNT composite exhibits good deformation recovery performance as a strain sensor [4]
Summary
Next-generation carbon-based nanofillers have gained great importance owing to their excellent properties that are suited to a wide range of applications, such as strain sensing. SR is traditionally used as a host matrix in nanocomposites reinforced with carbon nanomaterials for various applications, such as strain sensing [1,2] With their high aspect ratio, high filler networking density, and favorable morphology, CNTs have emerged as the best candidate among the different carbon nanofillers for SR and are promising for different applications [36,37]. The detailed mechanical, thermal, tribology, and electrical properties of SR filled with different carbon nanofillers under static and cyclic strains, along with their suitability for strain sensor applications, are reviewed Through this approach, CNT-based composites were found to exhibit the best mechanical and electrical properties and are, the most suitable for high-performance applications. Various advantages of using silicone rubber are described in the above section
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