Mechanical Properties of Montmorillonite-Filled Natural Rubbers Compatibilized by Epoxidized Natural Rubbers

Abstract

The effects of epoxidized natural rubber as a compatibilizer in modified-montmorillonite filled natural rubber were studied. Natural rubber was compounded with 2, 5 and 10 parts per hundred rubber (phr) of organomodified montmorillonite as a reinforcing filler and cured by using a conventional sulfuric system. Epoxidized natural rubber with 25 and 50 mol% epoxidic units (ENR25 and ENR50, respectively) was used as compatibilizer at the amount of 5, 10 and 15 phr. Rubber compounds were then tested for their curing properties. Test specimens for mechanical testing were prepared by compression molding. The use of montmorillonite as a filler in natural rubber efficiently improved mechanical properties that are tensile strength, modulus, elongation at break, tear strength and hardness, especially with the small amount of montmorillonite. This is supposed to be related to intercalation and exfoliation process. The increasing amount of montmorillonite caused the filler to be agglomerated thus the reinforcing efficiency was reduced and some mechanical properties were dropped. It was further founded that epoxidized natural rubber compatibilized montmorillonite filled natural rubber effectively. As the amount of epoxidized natural rubber increased, the mechanical properties tended to increase. The presence of epoxidized natural rubber improved filler-rubber interaction and filler dispersion. The compatibilizing efficiency of ENR25 was slightly superior to that of ENR50. This is because ENR 25 contains more double bonds than ENR 50 hence higher strain-induced crystallinity is occurred