Study on tensile, electrical, and thermal properties of aluminium particle filled natural rubber (NR) and ethylene-propylene-diene terpolymer (EPDM) composites

Comparative studies on the effect of aluminium particles in natural rubber (NR) and ethylene-propylene-diene terpolymer (EPDM) were conducted. The incorporation of aluminium particles in NR or EPDM composites increased the cure time, t(90), and scorch time, t(S2). At a fixed filler loading, EPDM composites exhibited longer t(90) and t(S2) than NR composites. The results also indicate that the maximum torque, Mu of aluminium filled NR and EPDM composites increase with increasing filler loading. For tensile properties, EPDM composites show lower tensile properties than NR composites. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) results show that aluminium filled EPDM composites have better thermal stability than aluminium filled NR composites. The results for electrical properties indicate that the electrical properties of aluminium filled NR and EPDM composites increase with increase in filler loading.