Without fillers, rubber types such as silicone rubber exhibit poor mechanical, thermal, and electrical properties. Carbon black (CB) is traditionally used as a filler in the rubber matrix to improve its properties, but a high content (nearly 60 per hundred parts of rubber (phr)) is required. However, this high content of CB often alters the viscoelastic properties of the rubber composite. Thus, nowadays, nanofillers such as graphene (GE) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are used, which provide significant improvements to the properties of composites at as low as 2–3 phr. Nanofillers are classified as those fillers consisting of at least one dimension below 100 nanometers (nm). In the present review paper, nanofillers based on carbon nanomaterials such as GE, CNT, and CB are explored in terms of how they improve the properties of rubber composites. These nanofillers can significantly improve the properties of silicone rubber (SR) nanocomposites and have been useful for a wide range of applications, such as strain sensing. Therefore, carbon-nanofiller-reinforced SRs are reviewed here, along with advancements in this research area. The microstructures, defect densities, and crystal structures of different carbon nanofillers for SR nanocomposites are characterized, and their processing and dispersion are described. The dispersion of the rubber composites was reported through atomic force microscopy (AFM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The effect of these nanofillers on the mechanical (compressive modulus, tensile strength, fracture strain, Young’s modulus, glass transition), thermal (thermal conductivity), and electrical properties (electrical conductivity) of SR nanocomposites is also discussed. Finally, the application of the improved SR nanocomposites as strain sensors according to their filler structure and concentration is discussed. This detailed review clearly shows the dependency of SR nanocomposite properties on the characteristics of the carbon nanofillers.

Several zinc dithiocarbamates (ZDCs) as accelerator derived from safe amine has been exclusively studied in the presence of thiazole-based accelerators to introduce safe dithiocarbamate in the vulcanization of natural rubber. Comparison has been made between conventional unsafe zinc dimethyldithiocarbamate (ZDMC) with safe novel ZDC combined with thizole-based accelerators in the light of mechanical properties. The study reveals that thiuram disulfide and 2-mercaptobenzothiazole (MBT) are always formed from the reaction either between ZDC and dibenzothiazyledisulfide (MBTS) or between ZDC and N-cyclohexyl-2-benzothiazole sulfenamide (CBS). It has been conclusively proved that MBT generated from MBTS or CBS reacts with ZDC and produces tetramethylthiuram disulfide. The observed synergistic activity has been discussed based on the cure and physical data and explained through the results based on high-performance liquid chromatography and a reaction mechanism. Synergistic activity is observed in all binary systems studied. The highest tensile strength is observed in the zinc (N-benzyl piperazino) dithiocarbamate-accelerated system at 3:6 mM ratios. In respect of tensile strength and modulus value, unsafe ZDMC can be successfully replaced by safe ZDCs in combination with thiazole group containing accelerator.

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We describe the synergistic activities of binary vulcanizing accelerators in presence of magnesium oxide as cure activator in the vulcanization of natural rubber. Thiuram type tetramethyl thiuram disulfide (TMTD) and thiocarbamate type zinc dimethyl dithiocarbamate (ZDMC) accelerators in combination with dibenzothiazyl disulfide (MBTS) were investigated for the vulcanization of rubber. The cure, mechanical, and thermal properties of rubber vulcanizates were studied with magnesium oxide-based cure activator. Notable synergism in the delta torque, cross-link density, and mechanical properties was found when using binary accelerators with magnesium oxide. The zinc-containing thiocarbamate accelerator, ZDMC, showed better synergistic activity in presence of magnesium oxide than the non-zinc-based thiuram accelerator, TMTD. To find out the possibility of making a zinc-oxide-free natural rubber compound, a control compound was prepared with 5 phr of zinc oxide as a cure activator with the best evaluated binary accelerators system with magnesium oxide (3:6 millimolar ratio of ZDMC to MBTS). We also compared the curing and mechanical properties of carbon black-reinforced rubber with zinc oxide and magnesium oxide separately with this binary accelerators system. The results indicated that a completely zinc-oxide-free natural rubber compound was possible with comparable values in the mechanical properties, thermal properties and a higher rate of vulcanization.

The effect of sol-gel synthesized magnesium oxide (MgO) nanoparticles as cure activator is studied for the first time in the vulcanization of natural rubber (NR) and compared with conventional zinc oxide (ZnO) in terms of cure, mechanical, and thermal properties. The NR vulcanizate with 1 phr (Parts per hundred parts of rubber) nano MgO shows an excellent improvement in the curing characteristics and the value of cure rate index is about 400% greater for NR vulcanizate containing 1 phr nano MgO in comparison to the NR vulcanizate with 5 phr conventional ZnO. Both mechanical and thermal properties of NR vulcanizate are found to be satisfactory in the presence of 1 phr nano MgO as cure activator in comparison to conventional NR vulcanizate. This study shows that only 1 phr nano MgO can successfully replace 5 phr conventional ZnO with better resulting properties in the sulfur vulcanization of NR.