| Clay minerals like montmorillonite(MMT),abundant and environment friendly,have layered silicate structure and excellent properties to be used for rubber/clay nanocomposites.So far there have been four main methods for the preparation of rubber/clay nanocomposites,but each one has its disadvantages.Thus,this paper presents a new approach named slurry compounding method(SCM)for the preparation of clay/rubber nanocomposites.The thermal degradation process and morphology of nanocomposites were analyzed by means of thermo-gravimetric analysis(TGA),transmission electron microscopy(TEM),scanning electron microscope(SEM),and X-ray diffraction(XRD).The dispersion of MMT in nanocomposites was observed.Moreover,the organic clay(OC)was used as a substitute for carbon black to prepare organic clay/carbon black/isobutylene isoprene rubber nanocomposites(IIR/CB/OC)and the traditional latex compounding method(LCM)which is the simplest and with least side effect was used to prepare montrmorillonite/natural rubber nanocomposites(NR/MMT),mechanical properties and thermo-oxidative aging property of above composites were analyzed.The results showed that the MMT was exfoliated in nanocomposites prepared by SCM,the nano-scale dispersion can be achieved.The vulcanization properties and mechanical properties of nanocomposites were tested and the result showed that the effect of MMT on the vulcanization properties and mechanical properties of nanocomposites depended on the polarity of rubber.The non-polar styrene butadiene rubber(SBR)showed delayed sulfur vulcanization,while the polar nitrile butadiene rubber(NBR)exhibited accelerated sulfur vulcanization.The mechanical properties,such as hardness,stress at 100%strain,tensile strength,improved with the addition of MMT,and the enhancements for the polar rubbers were more obvious as compared to the nonpolar rubbers.As for thermo-oxidative aging experiments,IIR/CB/OC and NR/MMT showed excellent thermo-oxidative aging properties. |
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