Abstract
Abstract With the emerging of sustainability, the fabrication of effective and eco-friendly agents for rubber industry has attracted extensive attention. In this study, a novel and nontoxic titanium dioxide-based vulcanization accelerator (xanthate-modified nanotitanium dioxide (TDSX)) with excellent antibacterial performance, for the first time, was synthesized under the catalyst of ceric ammonium nitrate. Notably, the thermal stability of xanthate was greatly enhanced after being grafted on titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles, in which the activation energy was increased from 6.4 to 92.5 kJ/mol, enabling the obtained TDSX with multiple functions, mainly consisting of fabulous vulcanization-promoting effects, reinforcing effects, antibacterial properties, and anti-ultraviolet aging effects for natural rubber (NR). Simultaneously, the TDSX can be effectively and uniformly dispersed in the rubber matrix along with the developed interface interaction between TDSX particles and rubber matrix. Compared to the traditional accelerators 2-mercaptobenzothiazole (M) system, the tensile strength and the tearing strength of NR/TDSX was improved by 26.3 and 40.4%, respectively. Potentially, our work for preparing green vulcanization accelerator can provide a new design strategy for multifunctional high performance elastomer materials.
Highlights
As one of the most strategically important elastic materials, natural rubber displays multitude of applications due to its remarkable properties, especially for outstanding malleability, high strength, and excellent resilience
To figure out the success of reaction and loading efficiency, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), 13C-NMR, and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) were subsequently used to check out the changes
Compared to TiO2, the newly generated peaks on TDSX at 1,006, 1,140, and 883 cm−1, which were attributed to the absorptions of C–O, C]S, and C–S, respectively, indicated that sodium xanthate has been successfully in situ formed onto the surface of TiO2 nanoparticles
Summary
As one of the most strategically important elastic materials, natural rubber displays multitude of applications due to its remarkable properties, especially for outstanding malleability, high strength, and excellent resilience. Due to significant difference in size compared to their bulk materials, TiO2 nanoparticles have attracted much attention for their high surface-to-volume ratio and adaptability for multiple functions It is a promising carrier, which can be widely used in rubber composites owing to low cost, absence of toxicity, and fabulous antimicrobial performance [10]. Due to the poor compatibility and serious self-aggregation caused by extremely small size and the hydroxyl on the surface of TiO2 nanoparticles [11], it is still difficult for TiO2 nanoparticles to be uniformly dispersed in the rubber matrix To address these issues, various strategies have been employed to functionalize the surface of TiO2 nanoparticles for reducing undesirable interactions and favoring desired interactions [12]. We believe that our study can provide a new approach to fabricate multifunctional vulcanization accelerators with antibacterial properties by simple catalysis of high valence metal ions, which is expected to expand the application range of natural rubber
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