The Natural Rubber/Zinc Oxide Nanocomposites: Its Morphology, Mechanical and Thermal Decomposing Properties

摘要

Natural rubber /Zinc Oxide (NR/ZnO) nanocomposites are fabricated by blending natural rubber latex with aqueous suspension of nano-ZnO particles. Its morphology and thermal/thermooxidative ageing resistance are investigated with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA). The results show that the mechanical properties of NR is greatly improved by the incorporation of nano-ZnO, nanoparticles, which are homogenously distributed throughout NR matrix as nano-clusters with an average size of 80 nm when the ZnO loading is less than 4 wt%. The thermal/thermooxidative aging resistance of NR/ZnO nanocomposites is compared to the pure NR. It is found that the introduction of nano-ZnO has no obvious impact to the thermal decomposing properties of NR matrix. ZnO/NR composites possess excellent antibacterial effect.