Abstract

Formulation, Preparation, and Mechanical Characterization of Nitrile-Butadiene Rubber (NBR) Composites

Author(s): Noor Aldeen Bawadukji and Rafi Jabra

The present research aims at preparing and characterizing of different formulations of NBR Krynac 3370F rubber with different contents of three inorganic reinforcing fillers: conventional N330 carbon black, nanometric aerosil 200 silica and micrometric volcanic tuff. In compounding rubber batches, the content of various additives (reaction activator; accelerator; plasticizer; anti-oxidant & vulcanizing agents) were fixed at the optimum known proportions and the reinforcing filler content has been varied between 10 and 100 phr. The study addressed, firstly, the determination of appropriate processing conditions for batches and testing samples preparation, and secondly the investigation of filler nature and content effects on the vulcanized rubber mechanical properties, namely, tensile strength, tensile elongation at break, Young modulus, toughness, and Shore A hardness based on ASTM D412 and DIN 53505. The present work showed the feasibility of changing reinforcing fillers content in NBR Krynac 3370F rubber within large interval enabling varying and improving its mechanical properties according to the requirement of various applications. The present work allowed also the comparison of carbon black, fumed Silica and volcanic tuff effects on processing conditions and mechanical properties of NBR Krynac 3370F rubber formulations.