Papers by Author: N.L. Lazić

Abstract: Properties of four materials based on styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR), one without filler and the other three with the same amount but different types of silica fillers, are investigated. The fillers used are Vulkasil S and two new fillers, differing in nano-structures: specific surface area and particle aggregate morphology. All other components in the material formulations are the same as well as the procedures of material preparation. Thermal and thermo-mechanical properties of all four materials are investigated by modulated differential scanning calorimetry (MDSC) and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA). Morphology of the materials is studied using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results for glass transition temperature (Tg ) of gum rubber and three filled rubbers, obtained by MDSC are for all four materials Tg = -50±1 0C, and by DMA loss tangent measurements also for all of them Tg = -29±1 0C. It indicates no significant influence of active silica fillers on the rubber network segment dynamics, in the temperature range close to Tg of SBR. But, at higher temperatures MDSC gives insights into dynamic transitions that are under the influence of filler interactions and sensitive to filler structure. The difference in Tg results obtained for the same material by MDSC and DMA can be understood in terms of different sensitivity of network segment dynamics to conditions provided by those two measuring methods.

Abstract: Silica fillers are used in rubber composites to modify their dynamic-mechanical properties. Three fillers are used: a commercial filler of precipitated silica type Vulkasil- S and two fillers obtained by its treatment in different ways: thermally and hydrothermally. The purpose is not only to obtain higher hysteresis of the composite at low temperatures and lower hysteresis at elevated temperature (which is optimal for good tire performance), but to understand the reasons of such changes in elastomer materials behavior and also possibilities to increase the corresponding trends. Both modified fillers exhibited required trends in comparison with the original commercial one. More detailed analyses of their dynamical behavior indicate interdependence between of filler particle size, morphology of particle aggregates and ratio of elastic to loss moduli, influencing all together the dynamic properties of products.

Abstract: The change in elastomer tensile moduli, as formulated in the Gaussian statistical theory of rubber elasticity, with deformation, is considered both experimentally and theoretically. Gum elastomers of different structures and corresponding materials filled with carbon black, as reinforcing filler, are investigated experimentally. For all materials considered, the same scaling pattern with negative and low slope for small deformations, and positive and higher slope for large deformations is obtained, indicating two distinct mechanisms of elastic response. Most pronounced is the similarity of small deformation responses for filled materials. Considering the modulus as an elastic energy density gradient dependent on structure changes with deformation, and interpreting the changes for small deformations in terms of conformational energy change, the fractal dimension of a new type is formulated. It describes the decrease in elastomer network connectivity with deformations, which is discussed in terms of conformon dynamics. Possibilities of application of Faynman's path integral method and statistical method of random walk to the lattice are considered for the conformon, as well.