The market demand for elastomeric‐graphene/derivatives nanosheets (GDS) materials is high nowadays, due to their excellent physico‐mechanical properties over traditional composites. However, the curing behavior of elastomeric‐GDS which influences the overall properties and also determines the cost of related products has not been well investigated. Previously, the curing properties of NBR‐graphene oxide (GO) and NBR‐reduced graphene oxide (rGO) was studied and the curatives (accelerator and activators) were suspected to have influence on their curing behavior. This study explores the curing behavior of NBR‐GO and NBR‐rGO in the absence of tetramethylthiuram disulfide (TMTD) accelerator. The virgin NBR exhibited shorter curing periods with higher curing rates (CRI) than the composites. The measured CRI showed close correlation with the activation energy Ea, deduced from Ozawa and Kissinger kinetics models. The NBR‐rGO composites showed shorter scorch time and lowered Ea at higher temperatures, with increased tensile properties than NB‐GO composites. Despite the delay, the composites exhibited high strength over the virgin NBR, due to tighter networks introduced by rGO and GO sheets within NBR. Therefore, future design of elastomer‐GDS‐based composites must involve a careful control of the amounts of the accelerator‐/co‐accelerator‐like TMTD in the mixtures for improved physico‐mechanical properties of the final product.

Highly polar and hydrophilic polymers; ethylene‐vinyl acetate (EVA), epichlorohydrin rubber (GECO), and polyethylene oxide (PEO) reinforced with fillers (carbon black (CB) and/or Silica) were used to prepare water‐swellable rubber nanocomposites. The study showed that although the high content of the GECO delayed vulcanization of the corresponding compounds, the sample filled with desired ratio of GECO/PEO/EVA or GPE, cross‐linked with peroxide exhibited the highest swelling performance of ⁓150%. The samples exhibited good re‐usability performance in the re‐swollen test, after drying. At prolonged water swelling, the tensile strength dropped drastically for compounds with high content of the GPE, due to weak filler‐matrix interactions. On the other hand, the incorporated GPE also increased the rebound resilience (%) property which is a key requirement in green tire fabrication. For example; peroxide cured sample coded SR3 (GPE‐15 phr CB) obtained ⁓30% resilience in non‐swollen state and ⁓53.5% after 1440 min of water‐swelling, which represents a dramatic development of over ⁓78% in rebound resilience. Thus, a proper balance between the GPE content, curing agent and the reinforcements may guarantee high water‐swelling performance and mechanical properties integrity for multifunctional applications such as wound healing, structural works, water collection from oil spillages, and for the development of water‐based sensors.