Improvement of the acoustic and mechanical properties of sponge ethylene propylene diene rubber/carbon nanotube composites crosslinked by subsequent sulfur and electron beam irradiation.

Autor: Eyssa, Hanan M, Afifi, Mohamed, Moustafa, Hesham
Předmět:
Zdroj: Polymer International; Jan2023, Vol. 72 Issue 1, p87-98, 12p
Abstrakt: In this research, sponge ethylene propylene diene rubber (EPDM) nanocomposites based on functionalized multi‐walled carbon nanotubes (f‐MWCNTs) and foaming agent azodicarbonamide (AZD) were successfully fabricated as potential acoustic‐absorbing foams. Two crosslinking systems were utilized for stabilizing the foam structure and improving its properties by subsequent sulfur and electron beam irradiation at 50 kGy as a fixed dose. The impacts of the concentration of AZD, f‐MWCNTs and crosslinking systems on acoustic and physico‐mechanical properties were investigated. The results manifested that the optimum foaming content was 3 phr. The acoustic data exhibited satisfactory enhancement in the sound absorption coefficient (α) for irradiated foam nanocomposites compared to unirradiated nanocomposites. This was attributed to the barrier effect of f‐MWCNTs in reducing the pore size of the foam, leading to an increase in the tortuous path in the foam matrix that stifled the sound waves from transferring into the bulk. Likewise, the compression properties were also improved. However, tensile stress and strain at break values for irradiated foams relatively decreased. The data obtained revealed an excellent possibility of using these EPDM foam nanocomposites for potential applications such as acoustic panels and airborne sound insulation. © 2022 Society of Industrial Chemistry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Databáze: Complementary Index