The work deals with the application of biopolymer fillers in rubber formulations. Calcium lignosulfonate was incorporated into styrene–butadiene rubber and acrylonitrile–butadiene rubber in a constant amount of 30 phr. Glycerol in a concentration scale ranging from 5 to 20 phr was used as a plasticizer for rubber formulations. For the cross-linking of the compounds, a sulfur-based curing system was used. The study was focused on the investigation of glycerol in the curing process; the viscosity of rubber compounds; and the cross-link density, morphology, physical–mechanical, and dynamic mechanical properties of vulcanizates. The study revealed that the application of glycerol as a plasticizer resulted in a reduction in the rubber compounds’ viscosity and contributed to the better dispersion and distribution of the filler within the rubber matrices. The mutual adhesion and compatibility between the filler and the rubber matrices were improved, which resulted in the significant enhancement of tensile characteristics. The main output of the work is the knowledge that the improvement of the physical–mechanical properties of biopolymer-filled vulcanizates can be easily obtained via the simple addition of a very cheap and environmentally friendly plasticizer into rubber compounds during their processing without additional treatments or procedures. The enhancement of the physical–mechanical properties of rubber compounds filled with biopolymers might contribute to the broadening of their potential applications. Moreover, the price of the final rubber articles could be reduced, and more pronounced ecological aspects could also be emphasized.

Composites based on acrylonitrile–butadiene rubber, carbon nanotubes, and manganese–zinc ferrite were fabricated and tested for electromagnetic interference (EMI) absorption shielding. First, carbon nanotubes and ferrite were solely used for the preparation of rubber composites. Then, carbon nanotubes were combined with magnetic filler and incorporated into the rubber matrix. The results revealed that carbon nanotubes act as reinforcing filler and significantly enhance the physical–mechanical properties of composites. The presence of carbon nanotubes in the rubber matrix also results in an outstanding increase in electrical conductivity and permittivity of composite materials, as a consequence of which the EMI absorption shielding was poor in the tested frequency range of 1 MHz to 3 GHz. On the other hand, ferrite-filled composites are able to efficiently absorb electromagnetic radiation emitted from various electronic and radiation sources. However, the tensile strength of the composites showed a decreasing trend with increasing content of ferrite. The combination of carbon nanotubes with manganese–zinc ferrite resulted in an improvement in the physical–mechanical properties of hybrid composites. As the permittivity of hybrid composites was still much higher in comparison with those filled only with ferrite, only the composite filled with 5 phr of carbon nanotubes and 100 phr of ferrite showed a slight EMI absorption shielding ability over the tested frequency range.

In this work, magnetic soft ferrites, namely manganese–zinc ferrite, nickel–zinc ferrite and combinations of both fillers, were incorporated into acrylonitrile-butadiene rubber to fabricate composite materials. The total content of ferrites was kept constant—300 phr. The second series of composites was fabricated with a similar composition. Moreover, carbon fibres were incorporated into rubber compounds in constant amount—25 phr. The work was focused on investigation of the fillers on absorption shieling performance of the composites, which was investigated within the frequency range 1–6 GHz. Then, the physical–mechanical properties of the composites were evaluated. The achieved results demonstrated that the absorption shielding efficiency of both composite types increased with increasing proportion of nickel–zinc ferrite, which suggests that nickel–zinc ferrite demonstrated better absorption shielding potential. Higher electrical conductivity and higher permittivity of composites filled with carbon fibres and ferrites resulted in their lower absorption shielding performance. Simultaneously, they absorbed electromagnetic radiation at lower frequencies. On the other hand, carbon fibres reinforced the rubber matrix, and subsequent improvement in physical–mechanical properties was recorded.

Calcium lignosulfonate in the amount 30 phr was incorporated into rubber compounds based on pure NBR and an NBR carbon black batch, in which the content of carbon black was 25 phr. Glycerine, as a cheap and environmentally friendly plasticizer, was applied into both types of rubber formulations in a concentration scale ranging from 5 to 20 phr. For the cross-linking of rubber compounds, a sulfur-based curing system was used. The work was aimed at the investigation of glycerine content on the curing process and rheological properties of rubber compounds, cross-link density, morphology and physical–mechanical properties of vulcanizates. The results show that glycerine influences the shapes of curing isotherms and results in a significant decrease between the maximum and minimum torque. This points to the strong plasticizing effect of glycerine on rubber compounds, which was also confirmed from rheological measurements. The application of glycerine resulted in better homogeneity of the rubber compounds and in the better dispersion and distribution of lignosulfonate within the rubber matrix, which was subsequently reflected in the significant improvement of tensile characteristics of vulcanizates. A higher cross-link density as well as better physical–mechanical properties were exhibited by the vulcanizates based on the carbon black batch due to the presence of a reinforcing filler.

In this work, dicumyl peroxide (DCP), di-tert-butyl peroxide (DTBP), di(tert-butylperoxyisopropyl)benzene (DTBPIB), and 2,5-dimethyl-2,5-di(tert-butylperoxy)hexane (DDTBPH) were used for cross-linking of rubber matrix based on Ethylene-propylene-diene monomer rubber (EPDM). The aim was to investigate the influence of curing temperature and the type and content of peroxide on curing process of rubber compounds, cross-link density, and physical-mechanical properties of vulcanizates. The results revealed that higher curing temperatures promote faster decomposition of organic peroxides, leading to the faster reactions of peroxide radicals with rubber chains. The increase in temperature resulted also in the increase of cross-linking degree. Although, side reactions as chain scission take over the main cross-linking reactions at very high temperatures resulting in the decrease of cross-link density. The increasing content of peroxides resulted in the acceleration of curing reactions and to increase of cross-link density. The fastest curing kinetics exhibited rubber compounds cured with DCP. However, vulcanizates cured with DCP were found to have the lowest cross-link density. In generally, the dependences of modulus, hardness, and elongation at break of vulcanizates were in line with the dependences of the cross-link densities, while higher tensile strength were found to have vulcanizates cured at higher temperatures and lower peroxides content.