The Role of Graphite-like Materials in Modifying the Technological Properties of Rubber Composites

In this work, general purpose rubber composites were created based on a mixture of non-polar cis-1,4-isoprene rubber and cis-1,4-divinyl rubber as components. The main filler used was carbon black, while various graphite-like materials (graphite oxide, reduced graphite oxide, expanded graphite, and graphite nanoplatelets) served as additives. It was determined that the addition of these graphite-like materials resulted in a reduction in Mooney viscosity, with the introduction of graphene nanoplatelets having the most significant effect, contributing to a viscosity decrease of 8.5%. The relaxation rate increased, positively impacting elastic recovery and consequently reducing shrinkage. The introduction of graphite oxide, graphite nanoplatelets, and expanded graphite also increased the time to the onset of the vulcanization reaction; moreover, these additives lengthened the time needed to reach the optimum level of vulcanization. The addition of various graphite-like materials significantly affected the elongation at break, with the highest increase attributable to the addition of expanded graphite and reduced graphite oxide. It was found that the conditional tensile strength of these additives had little effect. Upon assessing the elastic-strength properties after aging, it was found that the inclusion of graphite-like materials reduced the elongation at break.