Effect of Surface Treatment of Tire Rubber on the Tensile Properties of Ground Tire Rubber/Epoxy Composites

Abstract

The present work investigates the effect of surface treatment of ground tire rubber (GTR) waste on the tensile properties of GTR /epoxy composites. The GTR was treated using 10 wt% alkali solution and 1 wt% stearic acid in acetone. It was found that the treated GTR decreased the tensile strength, about 4.8 and 2.9% for NaOH-and stearic acid-treated GTR, respectively, compared to the untreated GTR. Nevertheless, the treated rubber increased the elastic modulus of the epoxy composites, about 5.2 and 9.3% for the NaOH-and stearic acid-treated GTR, respectively, compared to the untreated GTR. The strain at break and the absorbed energy of the treated GTR/epoxy composites were lower than the untreated GTR, consistent with the increase of elastic modulus for the treated GTR. Scanning electron microscopy revealed that the bonding of the stearic acid-treated GTR-matrix was good, indicating better interfacial strength than the untreated and alkali-treated GTR-epoxy matrix.