Enhancing properties of cured nr/pva blends using glutaraldehyde as a crosslinking agent: Effect of nano-clay loading

Abstract

A novel and inexpensive method to vulcanize natural rubber (NR) was successfully developed and reported in our previous work. NR can be easily vulcanized using glutaraldehyde (GA) at low temperature without adding any specific activators. However, there is some limitation (i.e., poor film formation and properties) to apply as many product items. Therefore, the main objective of this work is to improve the properties and film formation of this cured system. The effect of loading levels of nano-clay on the properties of GA cured NR/PVA blends has been investigated. Mechanical, thermal and morphological properties were characterized. From the overall characterization, cured NR/PVA blends with 1 phr of nano-clay exhibited the highest tensile strength, elongation at break and hardness of 8.02 MPa, 690% and 62.4 shore A, respectively. Enhancing in thermal stability of the sample was confirmation by shifting of degradation temperature based TGA technique. The experimental results reveal that the properties and film formation of this system can be developed with the proper additives in the preparation. From obtained knowledge, it is interesting due to it can be applied for various industrial applications with eases of producing at low temperature and cost.