Effect of Nano Silica on Mechanical Properties of Chlorosulfonated polyethylene compounds

In this study we prepared Chlorosulfonated polyethylene (CSM)/nano and micro-silica nanocomposites. Two series of (CSM)/nano and micro-silica nanocomposites were prepared using a base formulation. The difference between each series was only the used amount of MBT and sulfur in curing system. The effects of the nano and micro-silica content (5-20 phr) on the physico-mechanical properties such as tensile strength, elongation at break and hardness of all the nanocomposites were investigated. The morphology of the fracture surface and dispersion of filler in the rubber matrix of filled cross-linked systems was carried out by field-emission gun emitter scanning electron microscope (FEG-SEM). The result of first sulfur cure formulation showed that with increasing of nano silica content up to 15 phr, tensile strength fiddling increased to 25.9 MPa and then showed decreasing trend, therefore; there was not observed significant improvement in results. In the second sulfur cure formulation, efficient vulcanization (EV), with increasing of cure system content (MBT content from 0.5 to 1 phr and sulfur content from 0.75 to 1.25 phr), results showed that with increasing of nanosilica content up to 15 phr and microsilica content at 5 phr tensile strength increased to 37.1 and 28.2 MPa respectively, beyond which tensile strength decreases trend whereas hardness and modulus gradually increases with the filler loading. The nano-silica filled composites have higher mechanical properties and have better interaction between rubber and filler than that of microsilica filled composites.

Keywords:

Nanosilica , Nanocomposite , Mechanical Properties , Chlorosulfonated polyethylene (CSM