The strategy of using sustainable biomass resources instead
of
traditional petrochemical products has been established as an environmentally
friendly way to achieve the “green rubber” industry.
Meanwhile, rubber antioxidants possessing high efficiency, long-lasting
protection, migration resistance, and green multifunctional properties
have attracted intensive investigation for rubber protection. Herein,
a naturally extracted substance of tea polyphenol (TP)-functionalized
halloysite nanotubes (HNTs), which generates the slow release of free-radical
capturing activity and excellent interfacial interaction in the natural
rubber matrix, is fabricated by vacuum-pumping and surface-decorating
methods (denoted as HNTs-s-TP). Interestingly, the nontoxic and natural
antioxidant HNTs-s-TP exhibited remarkable thermo-oxidative aging
resistance and stability in a natural rubber (NR) matrix compared
to that of TP directly pumped into the tubes due to the further modification
of the chemical anchor TP on the outer surface of HNTs. In addition,
we have systematically investigated the mechanism for highly efficient
and sustainable antioxidation in the rubber matrix via the natural
antioxidant HNTs-s-TP derived from the constructed galloyl structure.
We envision that this new natural antioxidant fabrication technology
will provide significant insights into the innovation for the construction
of green and eco-friendly functionalized rubber additives.