Effectiveness of Cardanol as Plasticizer for Silica-Filled Natural Rubber

摘要

Cardanol is the main ingredient of cashew nut shell liquid (CNSL),an agro-byproduct.Its comparative merits for plasticizing silica-filled natural rubber (NR)is the subject of this paper.Aromatic oil is the conventional plasticizer employed for such compounding requirements.The mechanical properties,ageing behavior and torque time curves during cure of NR plasticized by both these materials are compared under identical conditions.It has been established that cardanol,when used as plasticizer,gives rise to similar mechanical properties in NR vulcanizate,shorter cure times and superior ageing behavior.The study also underlines the need for optimization of cardanol content for plasticization.