Enhanced Curing Behavior, Mechanical Performance, and Swelling Resistance of SBR/NBR Nanocomposites Reinforced with Modified Halloysite Nanotubes
摘要
This study investigates how halloysite nanotubes (HNTs), including (3-aminopropyl) triethoxysilane-modified HNTs (A-HNTs), [3-(2,3-epoxypropoxy)-propyl]-trimethoxysilane-modified HNTs (G-HNTs), and resorcinol-hexamethylenetetramine-modified HNTs (RH-HNTs), impact the rheological, mechanical, morphological, and swelling resistance properties of styrene-butadiene rubber/acrylonitrile-butadiene rubber (SBR/NBR) composites. The filler content ranged from 0 to 10 phr (parts per hundred rubber). Rheometric analysis revealed that increasing filler content enhanced minimum torque, maximum torque, delta torque, and cure rate index, while reducing scorch and optimum cure times. Across all filler types, higher filler content increased compound viscosity, crosslink density, abrasion resistance, and vulcanizate hardness, while also improving compression set and swelling resistance. Tensile strength initially rose with filler content up to 6 phr, but declined at higher loadings. RH-HNTs exhibited superior performance in cure characteristics, mechanical properties, abrasion resistance, and swelling resistance compared to G-HNTs, A-HNTs, and unmodified HNTs. Specifically, RH-HNT-reinforced composites showed significant improvements in tensile strength (210%), stress at 100% elongation (90%), and tear strength (102%) compared to base vulcanizates. However, elongation at break decreased by 31%, and rebound resilience decreased by 45%. Unmodified HNTs demonstrated the best compression set performance across all content levels compared to their modified counterparts.