Natural rubber based nanocomposites have current and potential applications in many fields. Mostly the nanomaterial are incorporated to rubber lattices during the compounding stage. However homogeneours dispersion of nanomaterial in rubber matrix is very challenging.
In this research we are trying to develop a spray drying process to improve the dispersion of carbon based nano materials such as graphite and carbon nanotubes in rubber lattices. The nanomaterils is first homogenized in latex and then spray dried to get well-dispersed nanomaterils in dry rubber matrices. So far we have achieved the well dispersed graphite in spray dried NR lattice and they have been compounded to make rubber sheets.
Table 01: The mechanical performance of rubber sheets
| Sample No | Elongation at break (mm) | Strain (%) | Stress at break (N/mm2) | Youngs Modulus (Pa) |
| Back flowed NR+Graphite | 943.17 | 1886.3 | 4.239 | 2247.25 |
| Sprayed NR+Graphie | 937.75 | 1875.5 | 4.59 | 2447.34 |
| Sprayed NR | 919 | 1838.16 | 3.702 | 2013.97 |
| RSS+Graphite | 820 | 1641.9 | 2.959 | 1802.18 |
The mechanical properties of the rubber sheets made out of spray dried rubber is much better than that of the rubber sheets made out of conventional rubber compounding processes. Our ultimate goal is to develop a laboratory scale spray drying setup for spray drying latex containing nonmaterial.
