Thermo-mechanical behaviors of butadiene rubber reinforced with nano-sized calcium carbonate

The thermal stabilities and mechanical interfacial properties of butadiene rubber (BR) reinforced with nano-CaCO3 were investigated using several techniques. As an experimental result, the thermal stabilities of BR/nano-CaCO3 composites were significantly increased by increasing the nano-CaCO3 content. With increasing the nano-CaCO3 content, the glass transition temperature of the composites remained approximately constant. Meanwhile, the mechanical interfacial properties of BR/nano-CaCO3 composites also were increased by the addition of nano-CaCO3, which result was due to the high intermolecular interactions between the rubber chains and the CaCO3 surfaces in the BR/nano-CaCO3 composites. The addition of nano-CaCO3 also had the effect of increasing the tensile strength and elongation of the composites.