Impacts of interfacial interaction on properties of melamine formaldehyde microsphere/rubber: I. filler dispersion and curing dynamic

ABSTRACT

Melamine formaldehyde microsphere (MF) was incorporated into nitrile butadiene rubber (NBR) and styrene butadiene rubber (SBR), respectively. The interaction between MF and rubber and effects of interfacial interaction on the dispersion of filler in rubber matrix, dynamic mechanical analysis, vulcanisation characteristics and kinetics were studied. The results showed that MF interacted with NBR through hydrogen bonds while there had no observed interaction between MF and SBR. The parameter b of MF/NBR calculated by the ratio of modulus and strains increased significantly, which demonstrated further the strong interaction between MF and NBR. For MF/SBR system, however, the parameter b changed slightly with little polymer–filler interaction. The Scanning Electron Microscope images released that strong polymer–filler interaction caused the uniform dispersion of MF in NBR matrix. The vulcanisation of MF/rubber was fitted by Ghoreishy’s model, and the addition of MF increased the rate of curing, shear modulus of compound and activity energy.

KEYWORDS:

• Melamine formaldehyde microsphere
• rubber
• interaction
• dispersion
• curing dynamic

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.