Abstract:
With the use of sulphur vulcanisation, blend composites of 80/20 Chlorinated polyethylene (CPE)/Natural rubber(NR) filled with various loadings of China clay were prepared. Viscoelastic, mechanical, oil resistance and thermal ageing properties of blend composites were investigated. Thereafter, the effects of silane coupling agent and organoclays on these properties were studied. With increasing china clay loading, a cure promotion phenomenon was observed. This affects the mechanical properties of the composites to some extent. China clay offers only a slight reinforcement of blend composites mainly via the hydrodynamic effect as long as the critical loading is not exceeded. Oil and thermal ageing resistance are independent of clay loading. Neither filler transient network nor strong polymer-clay interaction was observed. When silane was incorporated into 50-phr china clay filled blend composites, only a slight cure promotion phenomenon was observed. This is attributed to the presence of only a small amount of active silanol groups on clay surfaces deactivated by silane. Also, enhanced mechanical properties were noticeable with appropriate silane loading. This is caused by the improvement in polymer-clay interaction. However, with an excessive amount of silane, the plasticising effect overrides the polymer-clay interaction, giving a decrease in mechanical properties. Also, it was found that the migration of clay to the NR phase significantly increases with increased silane loading, which can be explained by the deactivation of silanol groups making clay more hydrophobic (i.e., more compatible with NR phase but less compatible with CPE phase). With the addition of 10 phr organoclay to the blends, the cure promotion phenomenon was observed which is believed to be the result of clay alkalinity. The blend with the greatest cure promotion is Bentone38, followed by 2HT-75, T50-HFP and unmodified nanoclay. Mechanical properties of blend nanocomposites are governed by strong interaction between nanoclay layer and polymer matrix, apart from the crosslink density. However, type of organoclays does not influence strongly the resistances to oil and thermal ageing. A strong Payne effect was observed in the cases of blend nanocomposites filled with Bentone38 and 2HT-75, compared with T-50 HFP and unmodified bentonite. Such an effect may be due to the presence of interconnected nanoclay platelets or tactoids associated with strong filler-polymer interaction. Referred to the Guth-Gold equation, the reinforcing effect provided by Bentone38 and 2HT-75 in blend nanocomposites is the result of combined physical and chemical interaction while that in blends with unmodified bentonite and T-50 HFP is caused mainly by physical rather than chemical interaction.