Viscoelastic Properties of Natural Rubber with Filler Nanomatrix Structure
Kawahara Seiichi (1)*, Yamamoto Yoshimasa (2)
(1) Nagaoka University of Technology - Niigata - Japan, (2) Tokyo National College of Technology - Tokyo - Japan
The outstanding mechanical properties of soft materials are partly due to the filler nanomatrix structure because numerous organic microparticles are dispersed in a small amount of an inorganic nanomatrix composed of inorganic nanoparticles and organic macromolecules. Here we form a filler nanomatrix using graft-copolymerization of a vinyl monomer with an inorganic oxide precursor onto natural rubber particles with an average diameter of 1 um dispersed in water. The inorganic oxide precursor is converted into inorganic oxide nanoparticles through hydrolysis and condensation, forming chemical linkages between natural rubber microparticles and inorganic oxide nanoparticles. Transmission electron microscopy indicates that the filler nanomatrix is densely filled with organic oxide nanoparticles and the natural rubber microparticles are dispersed in the nanomatrix. This nanomatrix structure realizes both energetic elasticity and entropic elasticity of a soft material, opening a novel field of building block chemistry with respect to a pair of organic microparticles and inorganic nanoparticles.