Thermo-soil weathering and life cycle assessment of carbon black, silica and cellulose nanocrystal filled rubber nanocomposites

Carbon black (CB) and silica (Sil) as rubber reinforcement have raised environmental concerns for being high re-sources consumptive and less susceptible towards biodegradability. Cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) has demonstrated great potentials for use as biodegradable nanofillers in rubber nanocomposites while evaluation of its environmental impacts with optimal end-of-life (EOL) choices is not carried out. To simulate realistic EOL, thermo-oxidative aging and soil burial aging behaviors of rubber nanocomposites with 33.3% filler were performed. The environmental weathering performance modeled with the help of life cycle assessment (LCA) illustrates increased biodegradation sus-ceptibility with partial replacement of CB or Sil with CNC in the nanocomposites, hence promoting the environmental solutions for waste minimalization by enhancing the biodegradability potentials. In terms of LCA, the CNC incorpora-tion contributes more to the environmental impacts in manufacturing but greatly lowers the EOL choices, by reducing the global warming potential values.

Automated summary

This study investigates the potential of using cellulose nanocrystals as biodegradable nanofillers in rubber nanocomposites and conducts a life cycle assessment. The results show that partially replacing carbon black or silica with cellulose nanocrystals can enhance the biodegradability of the composites, thereby reducing waste generation.