Preparation and stress-strain behavior of in-situ epoxidized natural rubber/SiO2 hybrid through a sol-gel method

In this paper, epoxidized natural rubber was reinforced by silica generated in-situ though the sol-gel method using tetraethoxysilane(TEOS) as precursor. The results showed that the ring opening reaction of epoxy group appeared in the insitu reaction progress, where the hydrogen bond between Si-OH and C-OH was mainly formed to enhance the stress-strain behavior of ESH simultaneously. During the hot pressing progress, the compound was crosslinked via the chemical reaction of Si-OH and C-OH. The chemical bond between Si-OH and C-OH reinforced rubber-filler interaction, resulting further improved the stress-strain behavior. Besides, comparing with precipitated SiO2 filled ENR, the dispersion of SiO2 in ENR matrix was distinctly more uniform though the sol-gel method, along with the enhancement of mechanical properties. Herein, our findings open up a new way to prepare an environmentally friendly rubber composite with excellent dispersion and strong rubber-filler interaction without curing agent effectively.