Relationship among mechanical properties, heat ageing resistance, cut growth behaviour and morphology in natural rubber: Partial replacement of clay with various types of carbon black at similar hardness level

In this experiment, various types of carbon black (CB) were employed to partially substitute the calcined clay for preparing natural rubber (NR) compounds of similar hardness. At similar hardness, the compounds containing both clay and CB give the better tensile strength, edge-cut tensile strength, tear strength and thermal ageing resistance compared to the control, but the control had better gas barrier property. In addition, the cracking behaviour of the vulcanizate has a transition from simple lateral growth to oblique crack with partial substitution of the clay with CB, and the vulcanizate containing N330 exhibits the greatest longitudinal cracking corresponding to its highest edge-cut tensile strength. This means the presence of N330 causes the greater orientation of the NR chains along the applied force. Furthermore, the vulcanizate containing N330 yields the highest tensile and tear strength, and lowest resilience, although it has the lowest volume fraction of filler. The explanation is given as the higher reinforcing efficiency of N330 and the better filler dispersion shown in SEM micrographs.