Improving rubbery materials has been done for many years by adding inorganic fillers to the base rubber. Carbon black and metal oxides are the most common types of fillers that have been used with rubbery materials. These fillers, combined with curing agents have remained the fundamental technique for achieving the unbelievable range of mechanical properties required for a wide variety of rubbery products in industry. The reinforcements of the rubbery materials have aimed on improving the rubber properties such as stiffness, modulus, rupture energy, tear strength, tensile strength, cracking resistance, fatigue resistance, and abrasion resistance.<br/>Two major factors that control the reinforcing mechanism of inorganic fillers with the rubber matrix is the dispersion into the matrix and the interaction between the rubber and fillers. In this work, polychloroprene grafted silica nanoparticles were used to prepare silica filled rubber nanocomposites. The effects of silica nanoparticles on the reinforcement of the composites was studied as a function of particle loading, dispersion of nanoparticles, and molecular weight of the grafted brushes.

Reinforcement of industrial chloroprene rubber by polychloroprene grafted silica nanoparticles

255th National Meeting (2018)

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