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Enhancing Natural Rubber Tearing Strength by Mixing Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polyethylene Short Fibers

Rubber products generally need to have high resistance to abrasion, tear, and cutting. Filling short fiber with strong mechanical properties and forming a net in the rubber matrix is a good method to realize the above aims. In this article, ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) short fib...

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Autores principales: He, Jun, Huang, Baoyuan, Wang, Liang, Cai, Zunling, Zhang, Jing, Feng, Jie
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10099356/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37050382
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym15071768
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author He, Jun
Huang, Baoyuan
Wang, Liang
Cai, Zunling
Zhang, Jing
Feng, Jie
author_facet He, Jun
Huang, Baoyuan
Wang, Liang
Cai, Zunling
Zhang, Jing
Feng, Jie
author_sort He, Jun
collection PubMed
description Rubber products generally need to have high resistance to abrasion, tear, and cutting. Filling short fiber with strong mechanical properties and forming a net in the rubber matrix is a good method to realize the above aims. In this article, ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) short fibers with a diameter of 20 μm and a length of 2 cm were filled into natural rubber (NR) to improve the tear strength of the NR. The influence of the short fiber mass fraction and vulcanization conditions on the mechanical properties of the composites were investigated. The results show that the milling process and vulcanization conditions are key factors in enhancing tear resistance performance. Double-roll milling and vulcanization at 143 °C for 40 min result in strong interfacial adhesion between the UHMWPE short fibers and the NR. The addition of 2 phr of UHMWPE fiber increases the tear strength of the composite material by up to 150.2% (from 17.1 kN/m to 42.8 kN/m) while also providing excellent comprehensive performance. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) imaging confirmed that the UHMWPE short fibers are dispersed in the NR matrix homogeneously, and the interface is close and compact. As a control experiment, UHMWPE resin powder was directly filled into the NR, and then the composite was vulcanized using the same process as that used for the NR/UHMWPE short fiber composite. The results show that the mechanical strength of the NR/resin powder composite exhibits minor improvement compared with NR. As there is no complicated surface modification of the UHMWPE fiber, the results reported may be helpful in improving the tear resistance of the industrially prepared rubber conveyor belts.
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spelling pubmed-100993562023-04-14 Enhancing Natural Rubber Tearing Strength by Mixing Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polyethylene Short Fibers He, Jun Huang, Baoyuan Wang, Liang Cai, Zunling Zhang, Jing Feng, Jie Polymers (Basel) Article Rubber products generally need to have high resistance to abrasion, tear, and cutting. Filling short fiber with strong mechanical properties and forming a net in the rubber matrix is a good method to realize the above aims. In this article, ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) short fibers with a diameter of 20 μm and a length of 2 cm were filled into natural rubber (NR) to improve the tear strength of the NR. The influence of the short fiber mass fraction and vulcanization conditions on the mechanical properties of the composites were investigated. The results show that the milling process and vulcanization conditions are key factors in enhancing tear resistance performance. Double-roll milling and vulcanization at 143 °C for 40 min result in strong interfacial adhesion between the UHMWPE short fibers and the NR. The addition of 2 phr of UHMWPE fiber increases the tear strength of the composite material by up to 150.2% (from 17.1 kN/m to 42.8 kN/m) while also providing excellent comprehensive performance. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) imaging confirmed that the UHMWPE short fibers are dispersed in the NR matrix homogeneously, and the interface is close and compact. As a control experiment, UHMWPE resin powder was directly filled into the NR, and then the composite was vulcanized using the same process as that used for the NR/UHMWPE short fiber composite. The results show that the mechanical strength of the NR/resin powder composite exhibits minor improvement compared with NR. As there is no complicated surface modification of the UHMWPE fiber, the results reported may be helpful in improving the tear resistance of the industrially prepared rubber conveyor belts. MDPI 2023-04-01 /pmc/articles/PMC10099356/ /pubmed/37050382 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym15071768 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
He, Jun
Huang, Baoyuan
Wang, Liang
Cai, Zunling
Zhang, Jing
Feng, Jie
Enhancing Natural Rubber Tearing Strength by Mixing Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polyethylene Short Fibers
title Enhancing Natural Rubber Tearing Strength by Mixing Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polyethylene Short Fibers
title_full Enhancing Natural Rubber Tearing Strength by Mixing Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polyethylene Short Fibers
title_fullStr Enhancing Natural Rubber Tearing Strength by Mixing Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polyethylene Short Fibers
title_full_unstemmed Enhancing Natural Rubber Tearing Strength by Mixing Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polyethylene Short Fibers
title_short Enhancing Natural Rubber Tearing Strength by Mixing Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polyethylene Short Fibers
title_sort enhancing natural rubber tearing strength by mixing ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene short fibers
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10099356/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37050382
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym15071768
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