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Morphology and Viscoelastic Behaviour of a Silica Filled Styrene/Butadiene Random Copolymer
Author(s) -
Conzatti Lucia,
Costa Giovanna,
Castellano Maila,
Turturro Antonio,
Negroni Fabio Michele,
Gérard Jean François
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
macromolecular materials and engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.913
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1439-2054
pISSN - 1438-7492
DOI - 10.1002/mame.200700320
Subject(s) - materials science , styrene butadiene , natural rubber , composite material , viscoelasticity , copolymer , filler (materials) , polymer , dispersion (optics) , surface modification , ultimate tensile strength , silanes , synthetic rubber , styrene , silane , chemical engineering , physics , optics , engineering
Abstract An investigation into styrene‐butadiene rubber and styrene‐butadiene rubber/butadiene rubber composites was conducted, aimed at investigating the influence of surface modification of silica on polymer‐filler interactions. Two silanes, bis ‐triethoxysilylpropyltetrasulfane and octadecyltriethoxysilane, were used as surface modifiers. A morphological investigation by transmission electron microscopy and automated image analysis provided a quantitative evaluation of the filler distribution in the rubber matrix by using morphometric descriptors, such as projected area, perimeter and area/perimeter ratio. The better dispersion of the surface‐modified silica nicely relates with the improved dynamic‐mechanical and tensile properties and accounts for the higher critical concentration necessary to the formation of the secondary network, thus confirming that the surface modification reduces filler‐filler and enhances polymer‐filler interactions.