Carbon Fiber Networked Nano Carbon Black as a Novel Conductive Filler to Enhance the Thermal Conductivity of Natural Rubber Composites
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Date
2018
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka
Abstract
Thermal conductivity of natural rubber (NR) was enhanced by incorporating a novel
conductive hybrid nano filler, namely carbon fiber (CF) networked spherical carbon
black (CB) nanoparticles. The CF/CB hybrid fillers were artificially generated insitu in the rubber matrix by means of melt mixing, where the carbon black
nanoparticles initially dispersed in natural rubber matrix with aid of rubber
processing oil (polycyclic aromatic oil (PCA)) and hereafter, it was added CF to
interconnect the CB domains. The preparation of master batch and final batch were
done through the melt mixing in internal mixture where CF/CB total filler loading
was kept at 40 parts per hundred of rubber (phr). Thermal conductivity of prepared
composites were measured using lees disc method and the value of CF/CB rubber
composite was 0.45 Wm-1K
-1
and it was significantly improved compared to the
control (0.25 Wm-1K
-1
). The neat carbon black (CB) composite was also prepared (at
40 phr) for comparison purposes and the thermal conductivity value deemed to be
0.35 Win-1K
-1
. The higher conductivity of CF/CB composite suggests that the
presence of CF network within CB nanoparticles has significantly contributed to
enhance the thermal conductivity compared to that of the neat CB rubber composite.
Thermal stability of the prepared CF/CB composites were enhanced significantly
compared to control and the neat CB composite. Scanning electron micro photo
graphs confirmed the generated network of CF onto the spherical CB nanoparticles
and interconnected morphology of CF/CB hybrid fillers. The enhanced thermal
conductivity of the compounds can be related to produce industrial applications
such as tyres.
Keywords: Natural rubber nanocomposites, Thermal conductivity, Carbon fibers, Carbon
black
Description
Keywords
Materials Sciences, Mineral Sciences