Preparation and Properties of Styrene-Butadiene Rubber Nanocomposites Blended with Carbon Black-Graphene Hybrid Filler

Graphene has become an attractive reinforcing filler for rubber materials, but its dispersion in rubber is still a big challenge. In this work, a novel carbon black-reduced graphene (CB-RG) hybrid filler was fabricated and blended with styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) via simple two-roll mill mixing. The prepared CB-RG hybrids had a microstructure with small CB agglomerates adsorbed onto graphene surfaces. CB acted as a barrier preventing the RG sheets from restacking even after drying. Homogeneous dispersion of graphene sheets in SBR matrix was observed by the mechanical mixing method based on the application of the CB-RG hybrid fillers. Dynamic mechanical analysis showed that Tg of the SBR/CB-RG blend was higher than that of the SBR/CB blend indicating strong interfacial interactions between RG and SBR due to the high surface area of graphene and the - interaction between SBR and graphene. The tensile properties of SBR/CB-RG composites improved significantly and the volume resistivity decreased compared with the SBR/CB blends. The thermal stability of SBR composites filled with CB and CB-RG showed slight difference. (c) 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2015, 132, 41309.