Application of Different Vegetable Oils as Processing Aids in Industrial Rubber Composites: A Sustainable Approach

Abstract

Rubber composites based on renewable vegetable oils are being increasingly developed, as these materials significantly reduce the use of petroleum-based carcinogenic oils as plasticizers in rubber products. Apart from renewability, vegetable oils have some major advantages, such as easy availability, biodegradability, and environmentally friendly nature. Until now, vegetable oils, such as palm oil, soybean oil, and linseed oil, have been successfully used as processing oils to replace petroleum-based oils in engineered rubber composites. So far, the concept of a vegetable-oil-based plasticizer has been applied to rubber composites containing different industrially important fillers, like carbon black, silica, calcium carbonate, and expandable graphite. In the near future, the trend of utilizing vegetable-oil-based plasticizers may bring considerable advancements in the performance of filled rubber composites in an environmentally acceptable and sustainable manner.