Melt compounding/intercalation rubber-clay nanocomposites

Much effort has gone into preparing rubber-clay nanocomposites based on NR as described in the earlier section. However, the dispersion of such nanoclays in non-polar NR matrices was very poor. In this section we would like to outline the preparation and characterization of NR-clay nanocomposites in the presence of certain eompatibilizers added into the system externally. For instance, Teh et al. prepared NR-OMt nanocomposites by a melt compounding method. ENR 25 and ENR 50 were used as compatibilizers. Pristine MMT was modified with oetadecyltrimethylamine and abbreviated as MMT-ODTMA. The amount of organoclay was only 2 phr while the amount of ENR was varied. NR-MMT-ODTMA showed mostly intercalated structure of the... 

The morphology of rubber-based nanocomposites also seems to change in the presence of compounding ingredients [89, 90]. HNBR, when melt-compounded with organo-modified sodium montmorillonite clays (o-MMTs) prior to sulfur curing, resulted in the formation of nanocomposites with exfoliated or intercalated structures. In stark contrast, under similar conditions HNBR compounded with unmodified sodium montmorillonite clays (NA) formed microcomposites [90]. This was traced to its reactivity with the sulfur in the presence of amine-type organomodifiers. 

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