'Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM Press)'
Abstract
Researches on developing renewable and eco-friendly processing aid are still on-going in the effort of replacing
conventional petroleum-based processing aid. In this study, the effects of a palm-based processing aid (Bio) and curing
systems on the physical properties of nitrile rubber (NBR) composites were evaluated. Curing systems studied were
conventional (CV), semi-efficient (SEV) and efficient (EV) curing systems. It was found that regardless of the curing
systems, the addition of Bio reduced the delta torque, cure rate index, glass transition temperature and loss tangent of
the NBR composites. Reduction of delta torque by Bio resulted in lower tensile modulus (M100) and higher elongation
at break (EB) of composites. Hardness, swelling index and compression set were also higher with the incorporation
of Bio. The effects of curing system were also prominent in which using CV cure system leads to higher M100 and
hardness and lower EB and compression sets. Excellent aging properties are crucial as it predicts the properties of the
composite during service. After accelerated aging, results revealed that the effects of curing systems were significant
on the retention of M100 and compression set of NBR composites where the SEV cured composites showed the highest
retention of M100 and the lower compression set values. NBR composite with Bio, using a semi-efficient curing system
was found to have the best aging properties compared to other composites
