Review on the Effect of Nanofiller Addition on the Technical Properties of Polymers

Prime important applications of rubber are such as inner tire liners and fuel hoses which should have excellent gas barrier properties. Much attention has been given by researchers in improving gas barrier properties based on the polymer type or the compounding ingredients. In the variety of commercially available synthetic rubber, Butyl rubber possesses excellent gas barrier properties. Butyl rubber (IIR) is a synthetic rubber produced by copolymerizing isobutylene with small amounts of isoprene. To a small isoprene fraction of butyl rubber, chlorine or bromine is added to form chloro butyl rubber or bromo butyl rubber. This chlorobutyl rubber (CIIR) and bromobutyl rubber (BIIR) has the same property of butyl rubber but they can be cured more rapidly than butyl rubber. The nanoclay used in this study closite 30B. Development of butyl rubber nanocomposite has been done in two stages. The first stage is the preparation of chloro butyl nanocomposite (CI-C) by solution mixing and the second stage is the incorporation of chloro butyl nano-composite in butyl rubber by a vulcanization process. Morphological studies of the butyl rubber nano-composites were analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD). TEM used to observe the internal structure of the nanocomposite membranes in an effort to gain further understanding of the permeability properties.