Curing characteristics and tear behaviour of epoxidised natural rubber-sepiolite composites
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Date
2016-06
Authors
Ooi Chuan Hong
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Abstract
Sepiolite was used as a filler in epoxidized natural rubber (ENR) composites. The sepiolite filled ENR composites with and without silane coupling agent were carried out on laboratory sized two roll mill and cured by using semi-efficient sulphur vulcanization (semi-EV) system. The amount of sepiolite loading with and without silane coupling agent was fixed at 0.0 phr, 1.0 phr, 2.5 phr, 5.0 phr, 7.5 phr and 10.0 phr respectively. The studies involve in this research were curing characteristics, tear behaviour, rubber-filler interaction and morphological properties. The curing characteristics ENR composite was enhanced by addition of sepiolite with and without silane coupling agent. It show the reduction of optimum cure time and scorch time of sepiolite filled ENR composites with and without silane coupling agent once filler was added. However, the maximum torque and torque difference were increased with the increasing of sepiolite loading with and without silane coupling agent. Besides that, the presence of silane coupling agent also improve the curing characteristics of sepiolite filled ENR composites by improvement of filler dispersion and crosslinking between rubber matrix and sepiolite. The tear behaviour of ENR composite also improved when sepiolite with and without silane coupling agent was added. The tear strength of sepiolite filled ENR composites with and without silane coupling was found to increase until it reached certain amount of sepiolite loading. This due to better dispersion at different loading of untreated and treated sepiolite which shown in the SEM micrograph. In addition, swelling test also shows that rubber-filler interaction was stronger when untreated and treated sepiolite was added.