Sawdust Short Fiber Reinforced Epoxidized Natural Rubber: Insight on Its Mechanical, Physical, and Thermal Aspects

Abstract

In this work, Epoxidized natural rubber/sawdust short fiber (ENR-50/ SD) composites at different fiber content (5, 10, 15 and 20 phr) and size (fine size at 60-100 μm and coarse size at 10-20 mm) were prepared using two-roll mill and electrical-hydraulic hot press machine respectively. Curing characteristics, water uptake, tensile, morphological, physical, and thermal properties of the composites were investigated. Results indicated that the scorch time and cure time became shorter whereas torque improved as SD content increase. Though the decline of tensile strength and elongation at break values, modulus, hardness and crosslinking density have shown enhancements with the increasing of SD content. The water uptake percentage of all samples has shown an increasing as SD content increase. However, the low SD content, particularly fine size have presented lower water uptake. The temperature of weight% loss (5 and 50 wt% loss) of 5 phr SD (low content) have recorded higher temperature compared to 20 phr SD (high content) in the rubber composites, which indicated higher thermal stability. The fine size of SD has recorded better overall properties than SD coarse size at same loading in the rubber composites.