Studies of blends of natural rubber and styrene-butadiene rubber/citronella fibre composite: the effect of physico-mechanical properties and morphology

Abstract

Rubber composite filled with citronella fibre (CF) was prepared using two roll mill machine. The citronella fibre were undergone alkaline treatment before proceed to compound. Different ratio of filler were prepared with 10phr, 20phr, 30phr, 40phr and 50phr of both untreated and treated citronella fibre. Then all sample were tested using the mechanical testing and physical testing in order to access their tensile properties, curing characteristic, hardness value, crosslinking density and morphology analysis. Experimental results evidenced that the tensile properties increase until reached the optimum value and slightly decrease as the filler loading increases to 50phr. The treated rubber composites results in better hardness with better dispersion between the filler-matrix. The crosslinking density of treated decreased as the effect of alkaline treatment that prevent the transport of solvent through the interface. Examinations of the fracture surface of the specimen under SEM revealed the voids and poor interfacial adhesion with increasing filler loading.