Influence of Agitation Equipment on Reinforcing Effect and Dispersion State of Cellulose Nano-Fibers in Natural Rubber

There are many rubber products like tires, and reinforcing agents derived from fossil resources such as carbon black (CB) are used for them. However, in recent years, conversion to biomass resources has been demanded due to problems such as depletion of fossil resources. Therefore, we have studied the composite of natural rubber (NR) reinforced with cellulose nano-fibers (CNF), which has attracted attention as a next-generation biomass resource. It is very difficult to uniformly disperse CNF in the conventional kneading process. Therefore, it is preferable to agitate CNF in NR latex. Then, it is necessary to study the optimum agitation equipment of CNF. In this study, the reinforcing effect by CNF was investigated when the agitation equipment was changed. Agitation of NR latex and CNF was carried out by a hand, a homogenizer, a dispersion mixer, and planetary centrifugal mixer. Thereafter, agitated materials were dried and masterbatches were made. Furthermore, the masterbatch and vulcanizing agents were kneaded using an internal mixer. Tensile test and X-ray CT observation of the prepared vulcanized rubber sheets were carried out to evaluate the reinforcing effect and dispersion state of CNF. As a result, the planetary centrifugal mixer was most useful to uniformly disperse CNF.