Enhanced mechanical properties of rubber/clay nanocomposite via compounding butadiene-styrene-vinyl pyridine rubber-contained clay gel with styrene butadiene rubber

An efficient and environmentally friendly strategy is demonstrated for improving the clay dispersion in non-polar rubbers and enhancing their interaction at the interface. In this work, we introduced butadiene-styrene-vinyl pyridine rubber (VPR) latex into clay gel to prepare VPR/clay gel, which was then incorporated into the styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) to prepare SBR/VPR/clay nanocomposites (NCs), by gel compounding method. The results showed that the dispersion of the clay layer improved by the incorporation of VPR, and the interfacial strength between clay and rubber increased. As a result, the mechanical properties of SBR/VPR/clay NC significantly improved. The tensile strength of SBR/VPR/clay NC was up to 16.3 MPa, which was 930 % higher than that of the pure SBR and nearly 30 % higher than that of the SBR/organoclay nanocomposite (SBR/oclay NC) with the same filler loading.