Mechanical, Thermal and Solvent Transport Properties of Glutaraldehyde Cured Natural Rubber/Cotton Fabric Composites

Composites of cotton fabric reinforced cured natural rubber (NR) as matrix material were prepared. Glutaraldehyde (GA) was used as a curing agent to cross-link the matrix material. The cured composites showed excellent mechanical, thermal, physical and solvent resistance properties. Cotton fabric has the preparties like eco-friendly and biodegradability with excellent tensile strength. When such kind of fabrics is introduced into the vulcanized rubber, it is expected to enhance the stability considerably. A significant improvement in the stability of natural rubber in terms of tensile properties was noticed on reinforcing cotton fabric into matrix. An increase of 110 % in the tensile strength of natural rubber composite was observed upon the addition of 12 ml GA when compared to the uncured one. The observed surface hardness results also correlate well with the tensile properties of the resulting composites. Further, TGA and TSSR experiments confirmed the improved thermal properties. The solvent resistivity of NR composites was found to be gradually increased on increasing the amount of GA as a curing agent. Formation of 3-dimensional cross-linked structure in the NR molecules leads to enhance the stability of these composites.