Abstract:
Carboxylated nitrile butadiene rubber (XNBR)
latex is enjoying a big share in the glove manufacturing industry
as the natural rubber latex gloves been found to contain some
natural proteins which cause allergic reactions in certain
individuals. The main problem associated with synthetic
elastomers like XNBR is that they are typically not selfreinforcing.
Therefore, addition of reinforcing fillers is a must
in such lattices to meet application specifications. In the present
study, poly(methacrylic acid) (PMAA) and poly(methacrylic
acid & ethylhexyl acrylate) (60:40) (P(MAA-EHA)) modified
nano-silica was used for reinforcement of XNBR. Evaluation of
properties of XNBR vulcanizates filled with of micro silica,
unmodified nano-silica, acrylic polymer modified nano-silica
was carried out separately. The results show that addition of
small quantities of nano-silica confers an increase of mechanical
properties of XNBR vulcanizates, while high filler loadings of
nano-silica decrease the mechanical properties due to the
aggregation of nano-silica particles. The XNBR composites
based on 5 phr of 2% PMAA and 1.5% P(MAA-EHA) surface
modified nano-silica, showed the highest mechanical and
swelling properties amongst all the modified fillers tested.
