The rheological and mechanical properties of natural rubber/graphene composites

Abstract This research focuses on the use of graphene as a filler for natural rubber (NR). The purpose of using graphene is to improve the mechanical properties of rubber compounds and their processing characteristics. Graphene (G) consists of carbon atoms and is an essential filler for polymers to enhance electrical and mechanical properties. The addition of graphene to rubber can improve the wear resistance and mechanical strength of rubber products. Thus, the effect of the graphene filler composition is interesting to study. Variety of graphene loads (10, 20, and 30 part hundred rubber (phr)) were combined with a variety of sulfur fillers (S) (10 and 20 phr) and then composited with natural rubber. The effect of variations in a load of graphene and sulfur fillers on the rheological properties, abrasion resistance, and compression set were studied. The results showed that the optimal combination of the G/S load variation was 20/10 phr. It leads to a more extraordinary strengthening ability that is binding rubber molecules so that the interactions occurred, both physical and chemical, could be formed better with the NR molecular chain. This resulted in distinct rheological properties enhancement such as torque modulus and curing time. In contrast, the mechanical properties like abrasion resistance and compression set were still good. The FTIR Spectra of natural rubber-graphene composites confirmed that good filler disperses were obtained due to several intramolecular interactions of carbon graphene with NR molecules. Graphene can be used as a filler for rubber products, mainly rubber, abrasion, and compression resistant, and an alternative for commercial fillers.