Preparation and Properties of Nitrile RubberMixedwith Carbon Filler from Molasses

Abstract

In this research, a feasibility study was carried out on the utilization of molasses, by-product of the refining of sugarcane into sugar, as filler in nitrile rubber (NBR). Molasses was converted to powder under heating process. Molasses carbon filler (MCF) was finally obtained. As a result of percentage of carbon, it is observed that MCF containing 56 percent of carbon. Additionally, FTIR result confirmed that functional groups of MCF were comparable with carbon black. Nevertheless, SEM image clarified that the large particle size of MCF were different from carbon black. In the present work, MCF was incorporated into the NBR with various loadings of 0-30 phr and compared with carbon black. From the results, it was observed that cure times decreased with the incorporation of MCF. Additionally, modulus, tear strength, and swelling resistance of NBR slightly increased. In this work, the results revealed that the vulcanizates containing 30 phr of MCF provided optimum properties.