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Effect of flame retardant on the physical and mechanical properties of natural rubber and sugarcane bagasse composites

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Abstract

Sugarcane bagasse (SB) is waste from sugar industry. Many millions of tons of sugarcane bagasse are residues annually throughout Thailand each year. This research aimed to utilize SB mixed with the rubber compound to enhance the mechanical properties and improve flame-retardant properties. In addition, magnesium hydroxide (MH) and aluminum hydroxide (ATH) were added to study the effect of flammability of NR composites. From the results, we found that SB improved the mechanical properties and flame-retardant property, while the addition of both ATH and MH increased the efficiency of flame retardant. The cure time and scorch time of unfilled NR composites were found to be higher than that of NR filling with SB, ATH, and MH. The Mooney viscosities increased with the increase of SB, ATH, and MH. The tensile strength increased with addition of SB in composites, and when increased the content of ATH and MH tended to decrease the tensile strength of composites. The elongation at break decreased with increase in the contents of SB, ATH, and MH in composites. The microhardness, modulus at 100% and 300%, increased with the increase in SB and flame retardant. Moreover, the increase in microhardness was related to the modulus. From the horizontal burning rate analysis, it was observed that the NR composites with SB gave lower values of horizontal burning rate than the NR composites under same testing conditions. The addition of both ATH and MH enhanced to reduce the burning rate of NR composites.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Graduate Program Scholarship from the graduate School, Kasetsart University. The author would like to thank Siam United Rubber Company Limited for supporting all the materials in this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Kasetsart University, Bangkok, 10900, Thailand

    Khrongkhwan Yotkuna, Tanawat Imboon & Sirikanjana Thongmee

  2. Kasetsart Agricultural and Agro-Industrial Product Improvement Institute, Kasetsart University, Chatuchak, Bangkok, 10900, Thailand

    Rungsima Chollakup

  3. Department of Physics, Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi Viswa Mahavidyalaya, Kanchipuram, 631561, India

    Venkatramanan Kannan

  4. Specialized Center of Rubber and Polymer Materials in Agriculture and Industry (RPM), Department of Materials Science, Faculty of Science, Kasetsart University, Chatuchak, Bangkok, 10900, Thailand

    Sirikanjana Thongmee

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  1. Khrongkhwan Yotkuna
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Yotkuna, K., Chollakup, R., Imboon, T. et al. Effect of flame retardant on the physical and mechanical properties of natural rubber and sugarcane bagasse composites. J Polym Res 28, 455 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10965-021-02805-6

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