Original Articles: 2016 Vol: 8 Issue: 1
Investigation on the swelling characteristics of NR/BR rubber blends
Abstract
The Polymer stability investigation in different media is of a great practical importance to understand their characteristics for many industrial applications. The investigation on the swelling characteristics of rubber under different solvents is of more significant. The current paper presents a thorough overview of swelling of NR/BR blended rubber having many industrial applications at the present. The swelling of rubber induces self healing and increase in volume when in contact with certain fluids. The swelling test has been carried out upon interaction with fluids like oil and toluene and the swelling results in change of geometry, density, hardness. The swelling of the rubber blend depends on the temperature, pressure and fluid composition. Moreover high swelling taken place during the stage of adsorption by toluene than Aromatic Rubber Process oil (Mahathol), leading to an increase in dimension. The change in dimension of the toluene swelled sample is around 1.5 to 2 times than the oil swelled one. The Toluene swelled sample is almost weak and during the wear test they showed high wear rate when compared with Oil swelled samples.