Preparation of Unsaturated Polyester Liquid Natural Rubber Reinforced by Montmorillonite

The effect of liquid natural rubber (LNR) on the mechanical properties of unsaturated polyester (UP) has been studied in this article. Mechanical tests, such as impact and tensile test, have been conducted on the UP-LNR sample in order to determine the optimum LNR composition. The results showed that the tensile strength and impact energy increased with LNR and optimized at 10 phr. The optimum composition of LNR was used to prepare the composite with montmorillonite (MMT). X-ray diffraction of the composite showed the absence of peak in nanocomposites, which contain treated MMT. Scanning of electron microscopy also clearly showed that the agglomeration of clay occurs in the composite using untreated MMT, but is significantly reduced in size for the composite using treated MMT. On the other hand, the mechanical properties, such as tensile strength, tensile modulus, and impact energy, of the composites with modified MMT were also higher than the composite with unmodified MMT. The optimum composition of modified MMT in the composite was found at 4% filler loading.