Development of graphene oxide hybridized high-performance elastomeric nanocomposites with enhanced mechanical and thermomechanical properties

Abstract

The use of graphene sheets as a reinforcing agent in polymeric nanocomposites is increasing owing to their exceptional mechanical and thermal properties. Herein, graphene oxide (GO) is used as the reinforcing material in natural rubber (NR)/GO elastomeric nanocomposites to enhance the mechanical and thermomechanical properties of the composites. NR/GO composites of different compositions were prepared through consecutive melt-mixing and two-roll mixing processes. Mechanical, thermomechanical, and thermal stability studies of the prepared composites were carried out in accordance with ASTM standards. The incorporation of only 5 wt.% GO in the NR elastomer led to a 72–76% improvement in the tensile strength of the NR/GO composites. Simultaneously, the viscoelastic properties, namely storage modulus ($\mathit{E}{ }^{\mathrm{\prime }}$), loss modulus ($\mathit{E}{ }^{\mathrm{\prime \prime }}$), and glass transition temperature ($T_{\mathrm{g}}$) of the composites improved, and thermal decomposition of the composites decreased because of excellent interaction between the polymeric networks of the elastomers and the GO sheets.

Keywords:

• Natural rubber
• graphene oxide
• mechanical properties
• viscoelastic properties
• thermal stability

Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to the Director of CSIR-CMERI. The authors are also thankful to the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi, India, for financial support under Project MLP218112. Furthermore, this work is supported by a National Research Foundation (NRF) of Korea grant funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (2021R1A2C2005751 and 2021R1A4A1029780).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea [2021R1A2C2005751, 2021R1A4A1029780]; Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India [MLP218112].