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Interesting green elastomeric composites: Silk textile reinforced natural rubber

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

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Authors

Smitthipong, W 
Suethao, S 
Vollrath, F 

Abstract

The reinforcement of natural rubber (NR) with particles and fibres enables their use in even high performance applications, such as in road-racing bicycle tire casings. Here, for the first time, we examine the potential of silk textiles as reinforcements in NR to produce a fully-green, flexible yet strengthened elastomeric composite material. Various material properties were evaluated and compared with similar nylon textile reinforced NR composites. Two types of NR were used: whole and purified natural rubbers. The composite samples were prepared by sandwiching a single layer of textile between layers of NR. NR/silk composites exhibited higher static and dynamic mechanical properties than NR/nylon composites. In addition, silk textiles in whole NR composites performed significantly better than purified NR composites, due to stronger fibre/matrix adhesion and better wettability in the former, as indicated by surface energy measurements and scanning electron microscopy micrographs. Such bio-based natural rubber/silk composites might find interesting applications in soft robotics and as flexible, inflatable tubes.

Description

Keywords

Elastomer, Polymer (textile) fibres, Mechanical testing, Silk natural rubber composites

Journal Title

Polymer Testing

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0142-9418
1873-2348

Volume Title

55

Publisher

Elsevier BV
Sponsorship
This work was supported and funded by the EXPERTS4Asia (Erasmus Mundus), the Oxford Silk Group at University of Oxford, the Thailand Research Fund (TRF RDC5850004) and Kasetsart University (Thailand). We also thank the US Air Force Office for Scientific Research (AFOSR Grant Number F49620-03-1-0111) and the European Research Council Advanced Grant (SP2-GA-2008-233409) for generous funding. We acknowledge Chul Thai Silk Co., Ltd for providing silk fabric, and Asia Fiber Co., Ltd. for providing nylon fabric.