The use of industrial waste to develop new value-added materials and reduce their environmental impact is one of the most important tasks of science and industry, which can largely solve the problem of waste pollution. This work is aimed at studying the effect of different concentrations of fly ash aluminosilicate cenospheres on the structure and properties of elastomeric composites. In this work, using laboratory rollers, composite materials based on ethylene-propylene-diene rubber (EPDM-40) with different mass fractions of fly ash (10, 20 and 30 %) were obtained. Using the method of optical microscopy, the microstructure of mixtures of EPDM and aluminosilicate cenospheres was studied and it was shown that the filler content of more than 30% increases the content of larger cenosphere agglomerates in the structure, which indicates interfacial separation in mixtures, probably due to the fact that mechanical mixing on mixing equipment does not allow to achieve a uniform distribution of the filler throughout the elastomeric matrix. The IR spectra show the appearance of new absorption bands in the region. 1400 – 800 cm–1, corresponding to Si – O – Si stretching vibrations present in aluminosilicate cenospheres. According to the thermogravimetry data of the studied compositions, the introduction of aluminosilicate cenospheres contributed to a slight increase in the thermal stability of the tested composition with a cenosphere content of more than 30%. The influence of the concentration of aluminosilicate cenospheres on the resistance of composites to aggressive media was analyzed and it was found that the introduction of a cenosphere filler in an amount of 10 to 30 % in a mixture based on EPDM can increase the oil and petrol resistance of materials.
Read full abstract