New type of montmorillonite compatibilizers and their influence on viscoelastic properties of ethylene propylene diene and methyl vinyl silicone rubbers blends

Montmorillonite modified with a grafted polyacrylamide layer (Mt-g-PAm) was used as an effective compatibilizer for the blends of ethylene propylene diene (EPDM) and methyl vinyl silicone (MVQ) rubbers. PAm was prepared by surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP) in such a way that varied PAm content and Mt. surface coverage was achieved, which was confirmed by FTIR, TGA, XRD and TEM measurements. The morphology of the hybrid compatibilizers influenced the elastic behavior of the composite blends during samples deformation which was due to varied polymer-filler-rubber network interactions as well as the varied chains entanglements effects. The selective location of Mt-g-PAm within MVQ phase as well as at the EPDM/MVQ interphase affected the dynamic mechanical properties of the composites (storage and loss modulus G', G" and tan delta values). Tan delta values were used to investigate the damping properties of the composites. The highest values were observed for hybrid compatibilizers grafted with dense brushes. Compared to the values of the neat matrix, an improvement of 118% and 161% was reported for long dense and short dense brushes, respectively.