Comparison of Reinforcing Fillers used in Natural Rubber Latex Films

Abstract

A major problem with natural rubber latex used in thin film manufacturing is having less control over the properties of the material and low resistance to heat and ageing, compared to Synthetic rubber products. Since the industries are moving towards environment friendly solutions, in the current context, and high comfortability and durability of the wearable products, it is important to find means to enhance the properties of the NRL products. Introducing fillers into NRL is a common solution used in this cause. Carbon black, silica, calcium carbonate can be identified as widely used traditional fillers. Literature shows that the mechanical response of NRL products reinforced with fillers is highly influenced by several parameters such as, the processing conditions, the homogeneity of filler dispersion, the NR-filler interaction and the Morphological aspects of fillers. With the latest trend in field of science on graphite and its derivatives, several attempts have been carried out on introducing graphene and graphene based materials into natural rubber latex products. This review is a comparison carried out on the performance of Graphene and Graphene based materials used as a filler in NRL films.