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Silane-silica Reinforcement of Some Natural Rubber Vulcanisates
The hardness, cyclic fatigue life, cohesive tear strength, tensile strength, elongation at break and stored energy at rupture of some conventional accelerator/sulphur compounds of natural rubber with a sulphur to accelerator ratio of 2.5, containing 10 parts per hundred rubber by weight (p.p.h.r.) precipitated amorphous white silica were measured. The compounds also contained no silane, and 2.5, 5, 7.5 and 10 p.p.h.r bis[3-triethoxysilylpropyl-)tetrasulphane bifunetional organosilane to prevent the silica from interfering with the reaction mechanism of sulphur cure system in the rubber. This study showed that the cyclic fatigue life and stored energy were optimised to 176 kc and 134 MJ/m³ respectively, when 7.5 p.p.h.r. silane was added to the rubber The hardness and tensile strength improved to 45 Shore A and 31.5 MN/m², respectively, after 10 p.p.h.r. silane was introduced into the compound. Interestingly, the inclusion of silane had a detrimental effect on the cohesive tear strength and elongation at break of the vulcanisate.