Physical properties of natural rubber filled with pottery stone

Abstract

Silica is the most important reinforcing filler for natural rubber (NR) when compare with others
non-black fillers, due to its ability to improve physical properties such as tensile and tear strength. There are
silanol groups, -Si-OH, appears on the surface of silica particle. Because of its hydrophilic surface of silica,
when composite with NR, coupling agent should be added for enhancing compatibility between silica and NR.
Moreover, particle size of silica also affects their compatibility as well. The silica is obtain from the precipitation
of aqueous sodium silicate solution called precipitated silica, or from natural resources such as rice husk
ash and fly ash. According to its chemical composition, pottery stone composing of 75.9% of silica may be the
alternative non-black filler. The probability of using pottery stone as reinforcing filler for NR was investigated
in this work. Effects of pottery stone content particle size and coupling agent content on physical properties of
NR were studied.