Approaches TowardIn SituReinforcement of Organic Rubbers: Strategy and Recent Progress

Abstract

Organic rubbers, comprising carbon-carbon links in their polymer backbone, are an essential part of modern everyday life. Tough, their unique properties are mainly governed by reinforcing fillers such as carbon black and silica. However, the reinforcing power is not only driven by the chemical nature of fillers but also by their particle size, shape, distribution and dispersion. In order to minimize agglomeration and processing difficulties, the idea of in situ generated fillers has been approached. In situ means "locally" and refers to the generation of fillers during the vulcanization process. This versatile technique provides individual tailoring of rubber compounds due to numerous possible reaction pathways. In situ reinforcement has been reported for all relevant rubber matrixes and is already employed commercially. In this review, a comprehensive overview of possible in situ reinforcing strategies for organic rubbers and their impact on mechanical properties is provided. It covers the reinforcing power of sol-gel derived in situ fillers, metal salts of unsaturated carboxylic acids as well as the formation of interpenetrating networks with resins in detail.

Enhancing the material performance of chloroprene rubber (CR) by strategic incorporation of zirconia

“…On the other side, modulus at low strain and tensile strength for externally zirconia filled composites are relatively inferior even at same zirconia content. This clearly exposes the of zirconia loading by physical mixing, compared to in-situ loading, in bringing good filler dispersion and improved rubber-filler interaction in spite of using silane coupling agent 50 .…”

“…This clearly exposes the limitation of zirconia loading by physical mixing, compared to in situ loading, in bringing uniform filler dispersion and improved rubber-filler interaction in spite of using a silane coupling agent. 50 The reciprocal relationship of crosslinking density and degree of swelling is established in Table 5 (details are given in the Experimental section). Crosslinking density increases with zirconia incorporation due to enhanced CR-zirconia interaction and the effect is the maximum for In-Zr-20T and In-Zr-20A.…”

Effect of triethylene glycol bis(3‐tert‐butyl‐4‐hydroxy‐5‐methylphenyl)propionate on structure and mechanical properties of nitrile butadiene rubber/clay nanocomposites

“…Fillers have been commonly applied in rubbers to improve mechanical properties or to reduce the cost of products 1–3 . Among the low‐cost fillers, layer‐structured clay is considered a potential substitute for carbon black or silica in both rubber industrial applications and academic research due to its abundance and high aspect ratio 4–7 .…”

“…Fillers have been commonly applied in rubbers to improve mechanical properties or to reduce the cost of products. [1][2][3] Among the low-cost fillers, layer-structured clay is considered a potential substitute for carbon black or silica in both rubber industrial applications and academic research due to its abundance and high aspect ratio. [4][5][6][7] So far, melt processing, solution blending and latex compounding have been explored to obtain nanocomposite with uniform clay dispersion in various rubber matrixes.…”

Hybrid In Situ Reinforcement of EPDM Rubber Compounds Based on Phenolic Novolac Resin and Ionic Coagent

“…To obtain superior vulcanizate properties, most rubbers, including EPDM, need to be reinforced with fillers. Today, carbon black (CB) and silica are the most common reinforcing fillers in the rubber industry [3,4]. The reinforcing effect is not only governed by the chemical nature of the filler but also by several other factors, for example, the size, surface area, shape, and structure of the filler particles, and their dispersion and distribution [5][6][7].…”