Atomic Force Microscopic Research of Structural Features of Elastomeric Composite Materials Based on Butadiene Nitrile Rubber

Abstract

The influence of hollow corundum microspheres on mechanical properties and wear resistance of nitrile butadiene rubber (NBR) with the lowest quantity of acrylonitrile (17-19%) have been studied. Results show that the abrasion resistance increased with increase in filler loadings at the two particle sizes investigated. Research of mechanical properties showed that strength at break decreased, while relative elongation at break increased with increase in microspheres loadings. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) was used to perform high-resolution imaging of surfaces of NBR composites. Microspheres exfoliation from NBR matrix at uniaxial stretching was studied with the use of special device compatible with AFM. The obtained AFM images demonstrate stretched fibrils bonded to the surface of microspheres.

Reduction of filler-filler interaction and hysteresis loss of carbon black filled rubber compound by using modified carbon Black

“…The dispersion characteristics of carbon black filler in rubber matrix such as filler agglomerate size, dispersion, distribution was carried out by visualization of microscopic image analysis such as 3D image analysis and the quantitative analysis of surface roughness. 13–12…”

“…It was then cooled in desiccator and final weight of the gel was recorded. 10,12 Filler-Filler interaction as described by Payne effect was measured by Rubber Process Analyser (Premier RPA), Alpha Technology, USA. The analysis was carried out at 70°C temperature at a frequency of 10 Hz.…”

Application of atomic force microscopy to the study of low-temperature strain of elastomeric materials

“…It should be noted that such a device can be manufactured for other scanning probe microscopes and it is suitable for AFM studying the deformation process for almost any polymer and polymer composites. Another stretching device was also presented in previous works [26-28]. A distinctive feature of the device used in this work is the ability to control the temperature, which makes it possible to study strain-induced morphological changes of polymers at temperatures ranging from ambient temperature to −15°C.…”