TY - CONF A1 - Strommer, Bettina A1 - Böhning, Martin A1 - Schulze, Dietmar A1 - Schartel, Bernhard A1 - Agudo Jácome, Leonardo T1 - Anisotropy in natural rubber / graphene nanocomposites N2 - The incorporation of nanoscale particles into elastomers enable a boost in performance and/or a distinct reduction of conventional filler loadings due to their high surface to volume ratio. 2D layered nanoparticles like graphene and graphene-related materials provide a great potential as effective fillers in rubber, especially by enhancing mechanical and barrier properties. The type and properties of the nanoparticles, their interface and the elastomeric matrix materials influence the technical behavior, and therefore the potential application fields of such rubber nanocomposites. Especially crucial for the efficiency of the nanofiller, however, is its best possible incorporation into the elastomer. The dispersing of nanoparticles without agglomerates usually constitutes a challenge when using conventional two-roll milling or internal mixing. Academic approaches for highly dispersed nanocomposites solve this problem but are often energy and time consuming with no feasible scale up possibility. Therefore, an ultrasonic assisted NR latex premixing process was established to produce highly filled masterbatches, enabling the main processing with conventional rubber processing techniques. Two carbon-based nanoparticles with similar specific surface areas were investigated and incorporated in natural rubber as nanocomposites: A commercially available multilayer graphene (MLG) and a nanoscale carbon black (nCB). The mentioned premixed masterbatches were further processed to nanocomposites by the addition of matrix NR, two-roll milling, and hot pressing (vulcanization). By this procedure an increase in Young’s modulus of 157% (MLG) and 71% (nCB) could be obtained at a concentration level of 3 phr. As anisotropic material behavior was observable for the nanocomposites containing MLG, different measurement methods were investigated to quantify the orientation of the nanoparticles in the nanocomposites: Sorption measurements (swelling in 2 dimensions), hardness and dynamical mechanical analysis (in-plane vs. cross-plane), X-Ray diffraction and transmission and scanning electron microscopy. T2 - DKT IRC 21 CY - Nuremberg, Germany DA - 27.06.2022 KW - Processing KW - Elastomers KW - Nanocomposites KW - Graphene KW - Orientation KW - Anisotropy PY - 2022 AN - OPUS4-55205 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -