Elastomers rubber matrix

The pneumatic tire has the geometry of a thin-wallcd toroidal shell. It consists of as many as fifty different materials, including natural rubber and a variety ot synthetic elastomers, plus carbon black of various types, tire cord, bead wire, and many chemical compounding ingredients, such as sulfur and zinc oxide. These constituent materials are combined in different proportions to form the key components of the composite tire structure. The compliant tread of a passenger car tire, for example, provides road grip the sidewall protects the internal cords from curb abrasion in turn, the cords, prestressed by inflation pressure, reinforce the rubber matrix and carry the majority of applied loads finally, the two circumferential bundles of bead wire anchor the pressnrized torus securely to the rim of the wheel. 

Naturally occurring fibers such as cotton, cellulose, etc., have short whiskers protruding from the surface, which help to give a physical bond when mixed with rubber. Glass, nylon, polyester, and rayon have smooth surfaces and adhesion of these fibers to the rubber matrix is comparatively poor. In addition, these synthetic fibers have chemically unreactive surfaces, which must be treated to enable a bond to form with the mbber. In general, the fibers are dipped in adhesives in the latex form and this technology is the most common one used for continuous fibers. The adhesion between elastomers and fibers was discussed by Kubo [128]. Hisaki et al. [129] and Kubo [130] proposed a... 

In the literature, there are several reports that examine the role of conventional fillers like carbon black on the autohesive tack (uncured adhesion between a similar pair of elastomers) [225]. It has been shown that the incorporation of carbon black at very high concentration (>30 phr) can increase the autohesive tack of natural and butyl rubber [225]. Very recently, for the first time, Kumar et al. [164] reported the effect of NA nanoclay (at relatively very low concentration) on the autohesive tack of BIMS rubber by a 180° peel test. XRD and AFM show intercalated morphology of nanoclay in the BIMS rubber matrix. However, the autohesive tack strength dramatically increases with nanoclay concentration up to 8 phr, beyond which it apparently reaches a plateau at 16 phr of nanoclay concentration (see Fig. 36). For example, the tack strength of 16 phr of nanoclay-loaded sample is nearly 158% higher than the tack strength of neat BIMS rubber. The force versus, distance curves from the peel tests for selected samples are shown in Fig. 37. 

In order to produce high-performance elastomeric materials, the incorporations of different types of nanoparticles such as layered silicates, layered double hydroxides, carbon nanotubes, and nanosilica into the elastomer matrix are now growing areas of rubber research. However, the reflection of the nano effect on the properties and performance can be realized only through a uniform and homogeneous good dispersion of filler particles in the rubber matrix. 

In this relation, 2C2 provides a correction for departure of the polymeric network from ideality, which results from chain entanglements and from the restricted extensibility of the elastomer strands. For filled vulcanizates, this equation can still be applied if it can be assumed that the major function of the dispersed phase is to increase the effective strain of the rubber matrix. In other words, because of the rigidity of the filler, the strain locally applied to the matrix may be larger than the measured overall strain. Various strain amplification functions have been proposed. Mullins and Tobin33), among others, suggested the use of the volume concentration factor of the Guth equation to estimate the effective strain U in the rubber matrix ... 

They have all the rubberiness of the ethylene/propylene (EPR) rubber matrix, and the crystalline polypropylene (PP) domains hold them together. As saturated elastomers, they have natural resistance to oxygen and ozone aging. They are the second largest class of thermoplastic elastomers, 25 percent of the total market, used mainly in mechanical rubber parts. 

Requirements for rubber toughening of glassy polymers include (I) good adhesion between the elastomer and matrix, (2) cross-linking of the elastomer, and (3) proper size of the rubber inclusions. These topics are reviewed briefly in the order listed ... 

A third possible explanation Is that absorption of water In elastomers lAilch contain water soluble fillers has been shown to create pockets of solution which continue to grow until the osmotic pressure Is balanced by the containment pressure of the rubber. This Introduces a very complex picture for water permeation there are pockets of permeant, which cause mechanical stresses In the rubber matrix, creating thereby channels for water diffusion. 

Involvement of the Ozonized Rubber Moieties in Antiozonant Mechanism. The rubber chain relinking theory (30) is consistent in part with the self-healing film formation theory (37) a reaction between an antiozonant or some of its transformation products and ozonized elastomer is considered. Either scission of ozonized rubber is prevented in this way or severed parts of the rubber chain are recombined (i.e., relinked). A "self-healing" film resistant to ozonation is formed on the rubber surface. Such a film formed by the contribution of nonvolatile and flexible fragments of the rubber matrix should be more persistent than any film suggested in the protective film theory. 

In contrast, Li and Shimizu [103] ascribed the toughening behavior of the PLA-based blends to debonding at the rubber/matrix interface during deformation, which released the hydrostatic stress and facilitated the occurrence of shear yielding. When the hydrostatic stress is released within a PLA/polyurethane elastomer (PU) blend, debonding is easily induced at the interface between the (PU) domains and PLA matrix. This results in voids around the rubber, which allows shear yielding and improved the toughness of the materials, as shown by... 

Clays compatibilized and evenly dispersed in the rubber matrix tend to build networks at low concentration. Rheological measurements allow us to observe the occurrence of the filler networking phenomenon at low filler content (even 4 phr) in rubber matrices such as IR, ENR, SBR, EPR. At zero shear, the viscosity of RCN is thus higher than the one of the neat elastomer. However, OC reduces the steady shear viscosity of RCN, with pronounced shear-thinning behaviour, increasing with the clay content, a higher extent of extrudate, a... 

For hydrophobic elastomers such as NR and styrene butadiene rubber, carbon black usually has been selected as filler due to the hydrophobic surface characteristics and special particle shapes of carbon black which provide good dispersion. However, the dispersion of polar filler in hydro-phobic rubbers matrix is difficult because of its hydrophilic surface. The hydroxyl groups exist on the surface of polar filler provide strong filler-filler interactions which resulted in poor filler dispersion. The polar surface of filler formed hydrogen bonds with polar materials in a rubber compound. As known, the silica surface is acidic and forms strong hydrogen bonds with basic materials. ... 

In Section 23.2 was discussed the theory of reinforcement of polymer and elastomers which refers to the Guth-Gold-Smallwood equation (Equation (23.1)) to correlate the compound initial modulus (E ) with the filler volume fraction ( ). Moreover, it was already commented on the key roles played by the surface area and by the aspect ratio (/). Basic feature of nanofillers, such as clays, CNTs and nanographites, is the nano-dimension of primary particles and thus their high surface area. This allows creating filler networks at low concentrations, much lower than those typical of nanostructured fillers, such as CB and silica, provided that they are evenly distributed and dispersed in the rubber matrix. In this case, low contents of nanofiller particles are required to mutually disturb each other and to get to percolation. Moreover, said nanofillers are characterized by an aspect ratio /that can be remarkably higher than 1. Barrier properties are improved when fillers (such as clays and nanographites) made by... 

A research group in Korea used a new method to incorporate fluoro-elastomer rubber (FR) in NR matrix. FR is the designation given to about 80% of fluoroelastomers with vinylidene fluoride (VDF), whieh provides... 

Multiphase or multicomponent polymers can clearly be more complex structurally than single phase materials, for there is the distribution of the various phases to describe as well as their internal structure. Most polymer blends, block and graft copolymers and interpenetrating networks are multiphase systems. A major commercial set of multiphase polymer systems are the toughened, high impact or impact modified polymers. These are combinations of polymers with dispersed elastomer (rubber) particles in a continuous matrix. Most commonly the matrix is a glassy amorphous thermoplastic, but it can also be crystalline or a thermoset. The impact modified materials may be blends, block or graft copolymers or even all of these at once. 

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