Natural rubber

Composite number

Oxide

Elastomer

Curing (chemistry)

Fabrication

Metallurgy

Materials science

Rolling resistance

Graphene

Tread

Polymer

Alternative medicine

Nanotechnology

Organic chemistry

Dynamic mechanical analysis

Composite material

Medicine

Chemistry

Covalent bond

Modulus

Reinforcement

Pathology

Composites Part B Engineering

Graphene oxide (GO) and silica (SiO2) nanoparticles have been hybridized using KH550 modified GO (KGO) and Si69 modified SiO2 (MS) to develop natural rubber (NR)-based high-performance tire-treads. Due to donor-acceptor and π-π interactions of NR with the Si69 and GO respectively, SiO2/GO hybrid (MSKGO) was homogeneously dispersed in NR-latex. During drying and curing, the composite of NR and the MSKGO (NRMSKGO) was converted to covalent bonded network structure through possible condensation and free-radical reactions. GO was converted to reduced GO (RGO). Because of the enlarged interfacial area and synergistic reinforcing effect of covalent bonded MSKRGO, lubricating effect of RGO-layers, the cured composite (NRMSKRGO-V) shows increasing storage modulus and energy dissipation capability, while decreasing loss factor and elongation at break with increasing GO content. Fabrication of tire-tread using only 10 phr of the unvulcanized green composite (NRMSKRGO-U) containing 1% of GO increases the wear resistance by 44.5% (as evaluated by running the real tires), and decreases the rolling resistance by 5.1% while increases the wet skid resistance by 14.6% (as evaluated from the dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) data).

Synergistic reinforcement of silanized silica-graphene oxide hybrid in natural rubber for tire-tread fabrication: A latex based facile approach