Silica/graphene (Si/GE) blends produced by conventional mixing method was added into natural rubber (NR) and subsequently vulcanized by latex mixing - electron beam (EB) irradiation to crosslink into NR composites. Characteristics investigation showed that Si and GE were held together with physical interaction. Tensile properties of NR composites were investigated. The results showed that EB irradiation could be used as a tool for crosslinking NR composites to improve their tensile properties. NR filled with 2.5 phr of the Si/0.056% wt GE blend vulcanized by EB irradiation dose at 150 KGy (NR/Si/0.0565GE-EB) showed the highest tensile strength, acceptable moduli at 100, 300 and 500% modulus. The tear strength of the composite was higher than that of NR filled with only Si (NR/Si-EB). It was found that too much GE content in Si/GE blends degraded the composites and lower the tensile strength.
Rice hull is a by-product natural material composing of high amount of silica. In this work, silica microparticles were synthesized from rice hull using 3 temperature levels of calcination at 500, 600, and 850 ºC. Then, they were transformed to silica nanoparticles by precipitation method using sodium silicate as an initial substance synthesized from rice hull. Finally, the properties of silica particle were studied such as characteristics, morphology of particle, component, and size of silica. The result showed the silica structure became more crystalline when the temperature was increased. When the concentration of sodium silicate increased, more agglutination occurred in the silica structure. The results also indicated that the particle size and component of silica synthesized by heating rice hull at 600 ºC followed by precipitation method were the same as those of commercial silica.
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