Effects of fiber content and resorcinol‐formaldehyde‐latex treatment on composite properties of acrylonitrile‐butadiene rubber reinforced with chopped aramid fibers

Abstract

This paper investigated the effects of the fiber content and the resorcinol‐formaldehyde‐latex (RFL) treatment on characteristics and properties of the aramid fiber (AF)/acrylonitrile‐butadiene rubber (NBR) composites. The relationship between the AF/rubber matrix connection and the mechanical properties/wear resistance of the composites was the main focus. Results showed that the RFL treatment on the AFs significantly increased the elongation at break of the composites via improving the interfacial connection. However, samples with high untreated‐AF content showed the highest tensile strength due to the formation of fiber network during stretching. Moreover, the flexible RFL layer was not conducive to the tear strength of the composites. Furthermore, the addition of the AFs significantly improved the wear resistance of the NBR composites via enhancing the hardness and the tear strength, and the RFL coating was effective in further decreasing the wear rate under low load condition via improving the AF/NBR interaction. Under 20 N load condition, the specific wear rate of the composite with 15‐parts per hundred of rubber (phr)coated AFs was 90% and 40% lower than that of the NBR composites without AF and with 15‐phr untreated AFs, respectively.

Preparation and properties of aramid pulp/acrylonitrile-butadiene rubber composites

“…Though the AP morphology was different from that of the AF, the effects of the AP on the tensile properties were similar to those of short AFs. 41 In our previous study, it was demonstrated that the poor chemical bonding of AF/NBR was an obstacle in exploiting the full potential of the highperformance bers, which led to a tensile strength decrease when the AF was introduced at a relatively low content (<7.5 phr). In this study, we found that the brillation of AF did not considerably inuence this trend, though the physical connection was improved.…”

“…As discussed in the previous sections, the addition of AP increased the hardness and the tear strength of the NBR composites, which favored the wear resistance. In our previous study, 41 the coated resorcinolformaldehyde-latex (RFL) layer connected the aramid ber and the NBR matrix by chemical bonding and decreased the ber pull out from the matrix during sliding. In this study, the ber/matrix connection improvement was achieved by the physical method, that is, increasing the contact area via brillation of the ber.…”

“…Nowadays, NBR composites reinforced with novel llers, such as nano-llers, green llers and high-performance bers are investigated and reported by researchers. [39][40][41][42] The AP/NBR composite is considered to be a good candidate in many application elds, such as the damping material, 43 the friction material, 44 seals, 45 and the heat-insulating layer. 46 As reported by Teng et al, 47 surface treatments of the AP can improve the tensile strength of the AP/NBR composites by increasing both adhesion between the AP and the NBR matrix and the AP dispersibility.…”

Mechanical and Dielectric Properties of a Flexible Anisotropic Rubber-Based Composite

“…Some studies have also investigated the effect of fiber content and resorcinol-formaldehyde-latex (RFL) treatment on the chopped aramid fibers reinforced by acrylonitrile-butadiene rubber, finding that adding the aramid fibers effectively improved the wear resistance and the NBR composites via enhancing the hardness and tear strength. However, the effect of fiber straightness on material properties was not considered [39]. There are also some studies in the literature that use the blade-coating technique to prepare a nacre-like styrene-butadiene rubber/crumpled graphene nanosheet heater (NSGH).…”

Influences of fiber fibrillation degree on mechanical and tribological performances of aramid fiber/nitrile rubber composites

“…13,14 However, the smooth and inert surface of the untreated AF was an obstacle to the actual enhancing effect on the rubberbased composites, especially for which with a low AF content. 15,16 The negative impact includes the reduction of the tensile strength and sharp decrease of the elongation at break. Besides the weak connection between the fiber and the rubber matrix, the large modulus difference between these two phases leads to accelerated interface failure when the composite is under external load.…”