Reinforcing the Tensile Strength of Lightweight and Soft BBIR/EVA Foam with Organic Modified Potassium Titanate Whisker and its Thermal Insulation Performance

It is agreed that the mechanical properties and density of polymer foam material are contradictory. At present, the preparation of low density and high-strength foam material is still a great challenge. In this paper, potassium titanate whisker (PTW) with reinforcement and heterogeneous nucleation modified by γ‑methacryloxypropyltrimethoxysilane (KH-570) was used to prepare brominated butyl rubber/ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer (KPTW/BBIR/EVA) composite foam through molding foaming technology. Then the physical mechanical and thermal stability properties of it were tested with universal testing machine and thermal gravity analysis (TGA). The effect of KPTW on morphology (cell size, density and distribution) of BBIR/EVA foams was demonstrated by scanning electron micrograph (SEM). The results indicate that the tensile strength of KPTW/BIIR/EVA foam was increased by 75% compared with that of BIIR/EVA foam (1.23 MPa) when its density was 0.25 g/cm3. By introducing KPTW, the mean cell size of PTW/BIIR/EVA foam was reduced from 436.6 to 40.9 μm for KPTW/BIIR/EVA foam. Meanwhile, the KPTW as a foaming nucleating agent increases cell density of KPTW/BIIR/EVA foam and thus increased its thermal insulation performance.