Isothermal Vulcanization and Non-Isothermal Degradation Kinetics of XNBR/Epoxy/XNBR-g-Halloysite Nanotubes (HNT) Nanocomposites

Seyed Mohamad Reza Paran; Ghasem Naderi; Elnaz Movahedifar; Maryam Jouyandeh; Krzysztof Formela; Xavier Colom; Javier Cañavate; Mohammad Reza Saeb

doi:10.3390/ma14112872

Isothermal Vulcanization and Non-Isothermal Degradation Kinetics of XNBR/Epoxy/XNBR-g-Halloysite Nanotubes (HNT) Nanocomposites

Materials (Basel). 2021 May 27;14(11):2872. doi: 10.3390/ma14112872.

Authors

Seyed Mohamad Reza Paran¹, Ghasem Naderi¹, Elnaz Movahedifar¹, Maryam Jouyandeh², Krzysztof Formela³, Xavier Colom⁴, Javier Cañavate⁴, Mohammad Reza Saeb²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Polymer Processing, Iran Polymer and Petrochemical Institute, Tehran P.O. Box 14965/115, Iran.
² Center of Excellence in Electrochemistry, School of Chemistry, College of Science, University of Tehran, Tehran P.O. Code 14176/14411, Iran.
³ Department of Polymer Technology, Faculty of Chemistry, Gdańsk University of Technology, Gabriela Narutowicza 11/12, 80-233 Gdańsk, Poland.
⁴ Department of Chemical Engineering, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya Barcelona Tech., Terrassa, 08222 Barcelona, Spain.

Abstract

The effect of several concentrations of carboxylated nitrile butadiene rubber (XNBR) functionalized halloysite nanotubes (XHNTs) on the vulcanization and degradation kinetics of XNBR/epoxy compounds were evaluated using experimental and theoretical methods. The isothermal vulcanization kinetics were studied at various temperatures by rheometry and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The results obtained indicated that the n^th order model could not accurately predict the curing performance. However, the autocatalytic approach can be used to estimate the vulcanization reaction mechanism of XNBR/epoxy/XHNTs nanocomposites. The kinetic parameters related to the degradation of XNBR/epoxy/XHNTs nanocomposites were also assessed using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). TGA measurements suggested that the grafted nanotubes strongly enhanced the thermal stability of the nanocomposite.

Keywords: XNBR; degradation; epoxy; grafting; halloysite nanotubes; vulcanization kinetics.