pps proceeding - Abstract Preview
pps proceeding
Symposium: S08 - Rubbers and Elestomers
Oral Presentation
 
 

CARBON BLACK-NANOFIBER DUAL FILLER AS A PROMISING REINFORCING SYSTEM FOR NATURAL RUBBER

K P Surya (1)*, Naskar Kinsuk (1), Bhowmick Anil Kumar (2)

(1) Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur - West Bengal - India, (2) The University of Houston - Houston, Texas - India

The use of hybrid filler systems that combine the outstanding properties of nanofillers with the other conventional fillers like carbon black that are of lower cost is of very high technical relevance. The work presented here investigates the synergistic reinforcement of new generation nanofillers such as silicon carbide nanofibers (SiC), carbon nanotubes (CNT) when used along with carbon black (CB) in a typical tire composition. The filler-filler and filler-rubber interaction contributing to the enhanced mechanical and viscoelastic responses in these composites is determined using a modified Kraus equation; which took into consideration the nanofiber characteristics like aspect ratio and orientation. The detailed analysis of the results obtained from the dynamic mechanical studies pointed out the interesting ability of these nanofillers in improving the properties related to the ‘magic triangle for tire’. The shear-thinning behavior of the composites was confirmed from the frequency sweep studies, and it was deduced that the increase in the activation energy for flow contributed to the rigid solid-like behavior exhibited in the entire frequency range.