Preparation and Sound Insulation Performance of Superfine Metal Powder/Nitrile-Butadiene Rubber-Polyvinyl Chloride Microcellular Foaming Material

Lightweight sound insulation materials have received much attention. In this study, a series of superfine metal powder (SFM)/nitrile-butadiene rubber (NBR)-polyvinyl chloride (PVC) microcellular foaming materials were prepared with NBR-PVC as matrix and SFM as modifiers by employing the method of molding foaming. Analysis on the morphology of cross section, pore size, and pore distribution possessed by SFM/NBR-PVC was conducted by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), as well as the image processing software of Image-Pro. Then detailed discussion on the effect of SFM with different mass fractions in the matrix on the foaming quality was provided. In the meanwhile, the performance of sound insulation was tested by four-channel impedance tube system. The results show significant improvement for foaming quality and sound insulation performance of NBR-PVC microcellular foaming material through the addition of SFM. In comparison with the pure NBR-PVC materials, the microcellular foaming material exhibits the best performance of foaming quality and sound insulation when the SFM content in matrix is 30 wt%. It is shown that the average pore diameter and the foaming capacity decrease by 60% and 31%, respectively, while the surface density increases by 131%. In the meantime, the sound insulation index of SFM/NBR-PVC microcellular material increases by 7.2 dB to 30.5 dB, which conforms to the requirements of new lightweight sound insulation materials in modern time. Finally, the mechanism of the optimization conducted for sound insulation performance after the addition of SMF is explained.