Preparation and properties of natural rubber/layered double hydroxide nanocomposites

Nanocomposites of natural rubber (nr)/organo znal layered double hydroxide (znal ldh-ds) were successfully synthesized and characterized. a hydrophilic zn-al layered double hydroxide (znal ldh-no3 -) was converted into the organophilic form by replacing the nitrate ion in between the znal ldh-no3 - with dodecylsulfate ion (ds) to form znal ldh-ds. the melt intercalation technique followed by vulcanization process was adopted to synthesize the nanocomposites of nr/znal ldh-ds. intercalation of ds ion into the interlayer of znal ldh-no3 - increased the surface area and the porosity of the ldh. x-ray diffractogram of the organophilic znal ldh-ds shows that the basal spacing of the znal ldh-no3 - expands from 0.89 to 2.53 nm due to the accommodation of ds ion in the intergallery. after the compounding process with the nr,the basal spacing of znal ldh-ds in the composites is increased to 3.90 and 3.27 nm when the znal ldh-ds contents were 1 and 15 phr,respectively. transmission electron microscope image revealed that the znal ldh-ds was distributed in the nr matrix in such a way of exfoliated and different grade of intercalated. the tensile strength values of nr/znal ldh-ds (nanocomposites) were found to be higher than that of the nr/znal ldh-no3 - (macrocomposites).