Isothermal vulcanization and nonisothermal degradation kinetics of XNBR/Epoxy/XNBR-g-Halloysite Nanotubes (HNT) nanocomposites

Abstract

The effect of several concentrations of carboxylated nitrile butadiene rubber (XNBR)functionalized halloysite nanotubes (XHNTs) on the vulcanization and degradation kinetics ofXNBR/epoxy compounds were evaluated using experimental and theoretical methods. The isother-mal vulcanization kinetics were studied at various temperatures by rheometry and differentialscanning calorimetry (DSC). The results obtained indicated that the nthorder model could not accu-rately predict the curing performance. However, the autocatalytic approach can be used to estimatethe vulcanization reaction mechanism of XNBR/epoxy/XHNTs nanocomposites. The kinetic pa-rameters related to the degradation of XNBR/epoxy/XHNTs nanocomposites were also assessedusing thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). TGA measurements suggested that the grafted nanotubesstrongly enhanced the thermal stability of the nanocomposite