Synergistic Development of Natural Rubber/Butyl Rubber Composites for Improved Interfacial Bonding and Enhanced Shock-Absorbing Capabilities

Abstract

Shock-absorbing materials play a vital role in various industrial sectors, including construction and transportation. Among these materials, natural rubber (NR) stands out due to its exceptional elastic and mechanical properties, coupled with its robust crack resistance. Nevertheless, with the rising demand for enhanced damping capacities, there is a need to further optimize the damping performance of NR. One direct approach is to blend it with high-damping rubber. Butyl rubber (IIR) is a prominent member of the high-damping rubber category. Integrating IIR effectively with the NR, however, presents challenges. These challenges arise from IIR’s inherent characteristics, such as its low unsaturation, slower vulcanization rate, and restricted compatibility with NR. Addressing these challenges, our study employed isoprene and isobutene to synthesize a variant of butyl rubber with a higher degree of unsaturation─achieving an unsaturation level between 4 and 6 mol %. Notably, this heightened unsaturation significantly expedited the curing time of IIR and facilitated the concurrent vulcanization of both IIR and NR. Utilizing atomic force microscopy, we observed that the introduction of unsaturated double bonds ameliorated the compatibility between NR and IIR, leading to an interfacial region extending up to 1000 nm. Our tests using a dynamic mechanical analyzer and rubber processing analyzer demonstrated the material’s damping temperature range. Furthermore, there was a noticeable rise in the loss factor (tan δ) at ambient temperature, which remains over 0.1 across both a frequency window of 0.2 to 5 Hz and a strain spectrum of 10 to 200%. This tan δ enhancement ensured the potential of these rubber composites for shock-absorbing applications.