The Influence of Doped-Kaolin on the Properties of Styrene-Butadiene Rubber Composites

Nowadays rubber-clay composites are spreading due to their high performance, cheap cost, high tensile strength and thermal stability. Kaolin is alumino-silicate clay which contains ?-alumina in its natural structure. In this study, doping process using ammonium molybdate was held on kaolin to convert ?-alumina naturally found in it to ?-alumina which is a more stable phase that is not affected by the surrounding medium. Both kaolin and doped-kaolin were included in styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) composites to study the cure characteristics, morphology, mechanical and thermal properties of these composites. SBR containing doped-kaolin showed improved properties than those containing kaolin due to the change in the filler particle size which is smaller in case of doped-kaolin, leading to higher homogeneity of filler dispersion in SBR which accordingly caused a change in the properties of SBR/doped-kaolin composites.