Nitrogen‐doped graphene as an alternative to ecotoxic zinc oxide in rubbers

Abstract

Zinc oxide (ZnO) is an essential ingredient in industrial rubber production; it regulates the onset of vulcanization, accelerates the kinetics of vulcanization, and improves the mechanical properties of rubber. However, environmental pollution with ZnO is a concern because it is recognized to be significantly ecotoxic and might also have adverse effects on human health. One of the major sources of ZnO environmental pollution is rubber items, tires in particular. Nitrogen (N)-doped graphene is a promising nextgeneration catalyst. We show here that the replacement of 3 phr ZnO by just 0.1 phr N-doped graphene in styrene-butadiene rubber reduced the vulcanization onset time by more than a factor of two while retaining the fast vulcanization kinetics and enhancing the tensile strength in comparison with rubber with just ZnO. A shorter vulcanization time implies energy savings, which, together with the nontoxicity of N-graphene, should make the resulting rubbers substantially more environmentally friendly. V C 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2018, 135, 46116.

Investigation of the usability of activated carbon as a filling material in nitrile butadiene rubber/natural rubber components and modeling by regression analysis

“…There are literature studies that report that the element ZnO exhibits similar behavior in sulfur and increases the crosslink density. 57,58 In a study, it was seen that there were increases in the hardness values of compounds whose crosslink density increased, as in this study. 59…”

Use of ZIF‐8 as vulcanization additive to optimize natural rubber composites to lower the amount of ZnO

“…The main ones include other metal oxides, 8,9 nano-sized ZnO, 10,11 zinccontaining particles, 12,13 and amine-containing complexes. 14,15 Bindu Panampilly et al 11 suggested that nano-ZnO, when used as an activator, has an elevated specific surface area and reacts more readily with stearic acid and accelerator to form zinc-accelerator complexes, accelerating the vulcanization process. The pioneering use of aminosilanes for the surface modification of SiO 2 by Silvia Mostoni et al 12 and the concomitant Zn(II) ions through modified amino the coordination was carried out, constituting a central group of Zn (II) anchored using NO 3 .…”

“…Therefore, researchers have explored intensively to reduce the amount of ZnO in rubber materials and find environmentally safe alternatives to ZnO. The main ones include other metal oxides, 8,9 nano‐sized ZnO, 10,11 zinc‐containing particles, 12,13 and amine‐containing complexes 14,15 . Bindu Panampilly et al 11 suggested that nano‐ZnO, when used as an activator, has an elevated specific surface area and reacts more readily with stearic acid and accelerator to form zinc‐accelerator complexes, accelerating the vulcanization process.…”