Expanded bentonite clay by bio-adhesive resins and its impact on the mechanical, adhesion, and ultrasonic properties of NR/SBR/polyester cords systems

The improvement of the compatibility between two nonpolar rubber blends has a pivotal role to obtain superior blend properties. In this work, we utilized a facile and biofriendly modification approach of natural bentonite (BT) clay by two renewable resins, namely antibacterial gum rosin (GR) and soybean long oil alkyd resin (LAR). Which are considered to be toxicity-free reinforcing substance, thus preserving the bio-character of the substance. They used to increase the interlayer spacing distance between the BT galleries. This was proven by XRD and FT-IR. Natural rubber (NR)/styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) blend was loaded with variable proportions of EBT-based GR and LAR bio-resins ranging from 3 to 15 wt.%. The ultrasonic and tensile properties were used to assess the compatibility between the rubber blends. The outcomes revealed that NR/SBR-3EBT-GR and NR/SBR-15EBT-LAR nanocomposites possessed higher tensile strength and rapture at break. Furthermore, the proposed mechanism of EBT by GR and LAR bio-resins with NR/SBR blend was studied. The both nanocomposites were then subjected to different measurements such as morphology by SEM and TEM, H-pull-out adhesion between rubber blends and polyester (PET) cords, and antibacterial activity. These new filled blend systems can be effective supporting a wide range of potential applications such as green tubeless tires technologies.