Graphene oxide induced crosslinking and reinforcement of elastomers

Conventional elastomer processing requires crosslinking elastomer using specific chemical reagents and reinforcing it using filler particles. Here we report a method to simultaneously crosslink and reinforce styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) using graphene oxide (GO). We find that GO not only acts as an effective reinforcing filler, but also is capable of generating free radicals upon heating, enabling covalent cross linking of SBR. Moreover, the interaction between GO surface and SBR polymers results in an interfacial layer in which the density of crosslinks increases towards to the GO surface, thus interfacial layer shows much slower relaxation dynamics than the bulk rubber. The unique role of GO allows GO/SBR nano composites to have better mechanical properties than SBR crosslinked with conventional sulfur or dicumyl peroxide. The concept of using GO as both a filler and crosslinking agent may enable the discovery of polymeric nanocomposites with exceeding mechanical properties. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.