Improved mechanical, thermal conductivity and low heat build-up properties of natural rubber composites with nano-sulfur modified graphene oxide/silicon carbide

It is still a bottleneck to simultaneously attain enhanced mechanical properties, thermal conductivity and low heat build-up properties for graphene-rubber composites obtained by conventional fabrication processes. The critical elements to enhance the comprehensive performance of rubber include excellent dispersion and the interaction of filler and matrix. In this work, the increased filler structure degree with point-surface structured SiC/GO (SG) and the strong interface modified with nano-sulfur synergistically improve the dispersibility and interfacial interaction, which effectively achieves excellent integrated performance at low filler content. More importantly, nano-sulfur not only acts as a modifier to improve interfacial compatibility, but also has a vulcanization function that enables SG and natural rubber (NR) molecular chains to form a uniformly distributed cross-linked network structure. Consequently, only when 4 phr of SiC/GO-S (SG-S) filler was added to NR, the tensile strength, thermal conductivity and low heat generation properties are higher than those of NR/GO rubber by 22.5%, 21.2% and 8.3%. Therefore, this work may open new horizons for the development of green tire.

Automated summary

Conventional fabrication processes face challenges in achieving enhanced mechanical properties, thermal conductivity, and low heat build-up properties simultaneously in graphene-rubber composites. This study successfully improved the comprehensive performance by increasing filler structure and modifying the interface. The addition of nano-sulfur not only improved interfacial compatibility but also formed a cross-linked network structure.