Investigation of natural rubber composites with addition of montmorillonite fillers using thermal analysis.

This paper is devoted to the investigation of the properties of the natural rubber composites prepared using the cation exchanged-montmorillonite fillers. The characteristics of the montmorillonite fillers were studied by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and thermogravimetry (TG). These characterized fillers were used to preparation of the natural rubber composites, which were submitted to measurements of dynamic-mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA) and vulcanizing characteristics ( M, M, t, t, R) as well as physico-mechanical properties (tensile strength, modulus at 300 elongation- M, tensibility). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]