Testing of Rubber Composites Reinforced with Carbon Nanotubes

Dana Bakošová; Alžbeta Bakošová

doi:10.3390/polym14153039

Testing of Rubber Composites Reinforced with Carbon Nanotubes

Polymers (Basel). 2022 Jul 27;14(15):3039. doi: 10.3390/polym14153039.

Authors

Dana Bakošová¹, Alžbeta Bakošová²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Material Engineering, Faculty of Industrial Technologies in Púchov, Alexander Dubček University of Trenčín, Ivana Krasku 491/30, 020 01 Púchov, Slovakia.
² Department of Numerical Methods and Computational Modeling, Faculty of Industrial Technologies in Púchov, Alexander Dubček University of Trenčín, Ivana Krasku 491/30, 020 01 Púchov, Slovakia.

Abstract

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have attracted growing interest as a filler in rubber nanocomposites due to their mechanical and electrical properties. In this study, the mechanical properties of a NR/BR/IR/SBR compound reinforced with single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) were investigated using atomic force microscopy (AFM), tensile tests, hardness tests, and a dynamical mechanical analysis (DMA). The tested materials differed in SWCNT content (1.00-2.00 phr) and were compared with a reference compound without the nanofiller. AFM was used to obtain the topography and spectroscopic curves based on which local elasticity was characterized. The results of the tensile and hardness tests showed a reinforcing effect of the SWCNTs. It was observed that an addition of 2.00 phr of the SWCNTs resulted in increases in tensile strength by 9.5%, Young's modulus by 15.44%, and hardness by 11.18%, while the elongation at break decreased by 8.39% compared with the reference compound. The results of the temperature and frequency sweep DMA showed higher values of storage and loss moduli, as well as lower values of tangent of phase angle, with increasing SWCNT content.

Keywords: atomic force microscopy; carbon nanotubes; dynamical mechanical analysis; mechanical properties; nanocomposites.

Grants and funding

This research work was supported by the Operational Programme Integrated Infrastructure and cofinanced by the European Regional Development Fund through the Advancement and Support of Research and Development project for the “Centre for diagnostics and quality testing of materials” in the RIS3 SK specialization domain (acronym: CEDITEK II., ITMS2014+ code 313011W442 and KEGA 011TnUAD-4/2021) for the implementation of progressive methods of analysis and synthesis of mechanical systems in the educational process.