If citing, it is advised that you check and use the publisher's definitive version for pagination, volume/issue, and date of publication details. And where the final published version is provided on the Research Portal, if citing you are again advised to check the publisher's website for any subsequent corrections.

No abstract

If citing, it is advised that you check and use the publisher's definitive version for pagination, volume/issue, and date of publication details. And where the final published version is provided on the Research Portal, if citing you are again advised to check the publisher's website for any subsequent corrections.

No abstract

Nitrile rubber (NBR)-clay nanocomposites were prepared by co-coagulating the NBR latex and clay aqueous suspension. Transmission electron microscopy showed that the silicate layers of clay were dispersed in the NBR matrix at the nano level and had a planar orientation. X-ray diffraction indicated that there were some nonexfoliated silicate layers in the NBR-clay nanocomposites. Stressstrain curves showed that the silicate layers generated evident reinforcement, modulus, and tensile strength of the NBR-clay nanocomposites, which were significantly improved with an increase in the amount of clay, and strainat-break was higher than that of the gum NBR vulcanizate when the amount of clay was more than 5 phr. The NBRclay nanocomposites exhibited an excellent gas barrier property; the reduction in gas permeability in the NBR-clay nanocomposites can be described by Nielsen's model. Compared with gum NBR vulcanizate, the oxygen index of the NBR-clay nanocomposites increased slightly. The feasibility of controlling rubber flammability via the nanocomposite approach needs to be evaluated further.

No abstract

No abstract

Four graphite powder fillers with different form and size were mixed with acrylonitrile butadiene rubber (NBR, acrylonitrile content at 26%) at 20, 40 and 60 phr of the filler loadings, and the obtained compounds were characterized by SEM, tensile test, friction and wear test. Through the SEM observation, it was found that the expanded graphite could not be broken down to small particles uniformly when blended with rubber on the twin-roller. In the tensile test, the graphite with the smallest size possessed the best reinforcement ability as expected. The tribological properties of the rubber were improved when adding more graphite. The largest graphite particles imparted the lowest friction coefficient of the composites among four fillers, but the submicrometer graphite provided the best wear property to NBR.