Highly Exfoliated Natural Rubber/Clay Composites by "Propping-Open Procedure": The Influence of Fatty-Acid Chain Length on Exfoliation

作者：Rooj Sandip; Das Amit; Stoeckelhuber Klaus Werner; Reuter Uta; Heinrich Gert^*

来源：Macromolecular Materials and Engineering, 2012, 297(4): 369-383.

DOI：10.1002/mame.201100185

• curing kinetics
• exfoliation
• Mooney-Rivlin equation
• nanocomposites
• propping-open approach

A high degree of exfoliation of MMT in NR is achieved by using the so-called propping-open approach in which a stepwise expansion of the interlayer spacing of MMT takes place. The nanostructure is characterized by WAXD and TEM which indicate different extents of clay dispersion depending on the fatty-acid chain length. Curing kinetics of different nanocomposites is studied and interestingly low activation energies of the vulcanization process are observed in the case of NR/EMMT nanocomposites. The incorporation of EMMT dramatically affects composite properties whereas DMA indicates significant reduction of tan d peak height and the tensile strength approximately doubles from 14 to 30?MPa with only 5 phr EMMT.

• 出版日期2012-4