Preparation And Performance Research Of Natural Rubber Masterbatch With High Graphene Oxide Content

Due to its self-reinforcing characteristics,natural rubber is widely used in medical,aerospace,tire and other industries.However,due to its weak strength and small elastic modulus,natural rubber(NR)often needs to be reinforced with reinforcing fillers.Traditional reinforcing fillers include carbon black(CB)and white carbon black,and graphene oxide(GO)is a new rubber reinforcing filler.Due to the large specific surface area,small density and high Young’s modulus of GO,GO has a larger effective volume and a more significant reinforcing effect under the same filling quantity.The existing natural rubber/graphene oxide(NR/GO)composite prepared by latex co-sedimentation method has the problems of high energy consumption and long time consumption in the dehydration and drying process,so an energy-saving and environmentally friendly preparation method is urgently needed.To address the appeal,we prepared a high GO-filled NR/GO masterbatch by latex cosinking and spray drying using GO as filler and NR as matrix,and mechanically blended the high GO-filled NR/GO masterbatch with NR block rubber and carbon black(CB)to prepare NR/GO composites and NR/CB/GO composites with a GO content of 0.5 phr,respectively.Compared with the low GO-filled NR/GO composites prepared by the traditional method,the production amount of NR/GO masterbatch in the latex co-sinking and spray drying process is greatly reduced,thus reducing the time and energy consumed by the blends in the dewatering and drying,providing a new idea for the application of NR/GO composites in the tyre industry.(1)Using GO as a filler and NR as a matrix,NR/GO masterbatches with different GO contents were prepared by latex co-sinking,and NR/CB/GO masterbatches with different high GO fillers were blended with NR block rubber and CB to produce NR/CB/GO composites with a GO content of 0.5 phr and a CB content of 50 phr.NR/CB/GO-15(NR/CB/GO composite prepared from NR/GO masterbatch of 15 phr GO in combination with NR block rubber and CB)compared to NR/CB/GO-0.5(NR/CB/GO composite prepared directly by co-sinking 0.5phr GO with NRL in combination with mechanically co-blended CB),the tensile strength and tear strength decreased by only 0.51% and 3.24%,elongation at break increased by 2.16%,hardness decreased by 0.74%,static mechanical properties remained unchanged and heat generation increased by only 1.6°C.The GO content in the NR/GO masterbatch was 30 times that of the NR/GO composite,which greatly reduced the production capacity of the latex co-sinking process,while the overall performance remained almost unchanged.(2)Using sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate(SDBS)modified GO as filler and NR as matrix,NR/GO masterbatches with different GO contents were prepared by spray drying and mechanically blended with different high GO filled NR/GO masterbatches,NR block rubber and CB to produce NR/CB/GO composites with a GO content of 0.5 phr and a CB content of 50 phr.NR/CB/GO-30(NR/CB/GO composite prepared from NR/GO masterbatch of 30 phr GO in combination with NR block rubber and CB)compared to NR/CB/GO-0.5(NR/CB/GO composite prepared directly by co-sinking 0.5 phr GO with NRL latex in combination with mechanically co-blended CB).The tensile strength decreased by 1.67%,elongation at break increased by 4.16%,static mechanical properties were relatively stable and the heat generation only increased by 0.9°C;tensile strength reached 26.55 MPa,tear strength reached 95.95 N/mm,elongation at break and hardness were 420.9% and 65 HA respectively.The GO content in NR/GO masterbatch was further increased,which was 60 times of that in composite material.so the yield of the spray-dried NR/GO masterbatch was significantly reduced,but the overall performance was not significantly reduced,and the expected experimental objectives were achieved.