The Importance of Rubber Compounding Approach in Damage Evolution and Fatigue Performance of Carbon Nanotubes Doped Natural Rubber

This study was aimed to investigate the fatigue life of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) filled natural rubbers (NR) prepared by two different compounding techniques, including wet and dry methods. This was done to correlate the presence of defects to fatigue performance and to identify the optimum dispersion approach for CNTs/NR. The wet approach possessed a higher number of large defects compared to the dry approach, whereas the latter manifested better CNT dispersion. The presence of a higher number of large defects accounted for a significant reduction in the fatigue life in the wet batch with respect to dry samples. The formation of multiple tiny cracks and their further developments via crack shielding and crack coalescence were considered for damage evolution at the macroscale, while the presence of wrenching and river‐like patterns was notable at the microscale. Ultimately, the dry approach could be a better compounding technique for CNT dispersion considering its high quasi‐static and fatigue properties.