Studies on natural rubber nanocomposites by incorporating zinc oxide modified graphene oxide

Abstract

To obtain an efficient performance of the natural rubber/graphene oxide nanocomposites, it is essential to enhance the interfacial interaction between the filler and the polymeric matrix. The present study aims to improve the interfacial interaction between natural rubber (NR) and graphene oxide (GO) by modifying GO with zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZGO) using the coprecipitation method. The structural and morphological properties of ZGO nanocomposites were characterised by using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, UV–visible spectrophotometry (UV–vis), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The characterisation results show that zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles were synthesised and randomly decorated on the surfaces and edges of GO sheets. A series of NR-ZGO nanocomposites with varying compositions of ZGO were prepared by the latex mixing method. The morphological, mechanical, and dielectric properties of the nanocomposites were analysed by SEM, UTM, and impedance analyser. The results obtained for NR-ZGO nanocomposites revealed enhancement in mechanical and dielectric properties from neat NR and NR-GO nanocomposites.