Facile strategy for the preparation of green graphene rubber with enhanced interfacial interaction and thermal management capability

Abstract The development of high‐performance green rubber materials with excellent comprehensive properties is very important for the environment and resources. Graphene has excellent electrical, mechanical, and thermal properties and is regarded as the most promising functional filler for rubber composites. In this work, a facile and efficient strategy was used to prepare graphene rubber materials with balanced integrated properties by chemical modification of graphene oxide (GO) with gelatin (Gel). Gel molecules as bridges could not only connect with GO by chemical bonds, but also physically entangle with natural rubber (NR) molecules. The optimized dispersibility of GO and the enhanced interfacial interaction between GO and NR together enable graphene rubber to exhibit excellent integrated properties, such as tensile strength of 29.7 MPa and heat build‐up of 1.9°C only at 1 phr of Gel‐rGO (G‐rGO) content. Additionally, finite element simulation was used to evaluate the temperature field distribution of graphene rubber tires, and the temperature of the NR/Gel‐rGO (NR/G‐rGO) tread was 17.3°C lower than that of NR/GO. This work will provide effective strategies for the preparation of high‐performance graphene rubber materials.