The Potential of Chicken Eggshell Waste as a Bio-filler Filled Epoxidized Natural Rubber (ENR) Composite and its Properties

Abstract

Eggshell calcium carbonate (ECC) and eggshell calcium carbonate treated with high temperature (ECC-600) were prepared from chicken eggshell waste. ECC was obtained by crushing eggshell waste, eliminating membranes and followed by sieving. In the case of ECC-600, ECC powder was additionally heated at 600 °C for 2 h. Both were used to promote as fillers compared to that of commercial light-precipitated calcium carbonate (commercial CaCO3) with various loading levels (i.e., 0, 25, 50 and 75 phr) in epoxidized natural rubber containing 25 mol% of epoxide group (ENR-25). Among the three types of fillers (i.e., ECC, ECC-600 and commercial CaCO3), ECC filled materials showed superior vulcanization characteristics by the increasing of maximum torque (MH) and cure rate index (CRI) with the reducing of cure time (tc90) and scorch time (ts2). The highest tensile properties as well as the lowest tension set value were also observed. Morphological property revealed that ECC was greater interfacial adhesion than those of others. In addition, dynamic mechanical properties of vulcanizates containing ECC, storage modulus (E′) was the highest and glass transition temperature (Tg) shifted toward high temperature. Increasing of loading levels of any fillers affected the increase of MH and CRI with reducing of tc90 and ts2. However, tensile properties decreased with increasing filler content but it did not affect Tg shifting except for a series of vulcanizates containing ECC.