Permeability rubber-clay nanocomposites

Barrier properties of a rubber matrix are remarkably improved thanks to clay addition. The tortuous path model is proposed to explain this phenomenon. In a NR/Mt nanocomposite prepared from emulsion blending, 1, 2 and 3 phr of clay led to more than 35% and to about 45% and 50% reduction of oxygen permeability, respectively. " 3 phr of OC (Mt/ didodecyl methyl amine) gave a 50% reduction of the oxygen permeability and a 40% reduction of toluene absorption at 20 °C. About 10% and 15% reduction of oxygen permeability were obtained with 5 and 10 phr of OC, respectively, and 30% reduction of toluene absorption was achieved with 15% OC, at 30 °C. ... 

In the early 1990s, Toyota researchers reported nylon-6-clay thermoplastic nanocomposites [176-178] and observed significant improvements in the mechanical properties (i.e., the modulus was doubled and the increase in strength was more than 50%) at 4.2 wt% clay loading. This inspired many research groups to extend their work on the formation of nanocomposites in many other polymer systems. Silicone rubber (SR) is one of the important functional elastomers and its properties such as high moduli, increased heat resistance, decreased gas permeability and flammability, etc., can be further improved by incorporating different dimensional nanofillers for their better performance in multifaceted applications. 

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