PHYSICO-MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF RUBBER SEED SHELL CARBON - FILLED NATURAL RUBBER COMPOUNDS

Samples of rubber seed shells were carbonized at varying temperatures (100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700 and 800 degrees C) for three hours each and sieved through a 150 mu m screen. The portion of the rubber seed shell carbon that passed through the screen was characterized in terms of loss on ignition, surface area, moisture content, pH, bulk density, and metal content and used in compounding natural rubber. The characterization shows that the pH, conductivity, loss on ignition and the surface area increases with the increases of the heating temperature, unlike the bulk density which decreases. The compound mixes were cured using the efficient vulcanization system. Cure characteristics of compounds and physico-mechanical properties of the vulcanisates were measured as a function of filler loading along with that of N330 carbon-black filled natural rubbers. The results showed that the cure times, scorch times and the torque gradually increased, with increasing the filler content for rubber seed shell carbon-filled natural rubber, with the filler obtained at carbonizing temperature of 600 degrees C tending to show optimum cure indices. The physico-mechanical properties of the vulcanisates increase with filler loading. The reinforcing potential of the carbonized rubber seed shell carbon was found to increase markedly for the filler obtained at the temperature range of 500-600 degrees C and then decreases with further increase in temperature.