Investigation of carbon nanotubes as fillers to enhance the mechanical properties of motorbike tire rubber based on natural rubber and synthetic styrene-butadiene rubber

Abstract

In this research, we investigated the carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as reinforced fillers with the concentration of 0-5% into the mixture of natural rubber (NR) and synthetic styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) for motorbike tires. The research exhibited that when we increase the CNTs content in the rubber mixture, the optimal rubber vulcanization time (Tc90) has been decreased from 4.28 min to 2.83 min, which increases the rate of vulcanization about 28-34%. The physical properties of the rubber mixture after vulcanization including shore A, tear load, and tensil strength have been improved, especially abrasion resistance testing increased by 31%. Besides, the morphologies of the resulting rubber nanocomposites were determined via SEM and TEM. The thermal properties of the resulting rubber nanocomposites were investigated via thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA). Based on our results, the nanocomposites based on rubber/CNTs with the well-dispersed CNTs in the matrix will be potential materials for long-life rubber tires.