Tensile and Morphological Properties of Rice Husk Powder Filled Natural Rubber Latex Foam

Abstract

Rice husk powder (RHP) is an agricultural by-product, and this research is carried out to incorporate RHP with natural rubber latex (NRL) compound and is foamed to make natural rubber latex foam (NRLF) using the Dunlop method. The tensile properties of modified NRLF is studied and compared with the controlled NRLF (zero RHP loading). The morphology and micro structural characterization has been performed by tabletop microscopy (TM1000). The tensile strength decreases at 2.5 pphr but increases again with increasing filler loading. Elongation at break decreases, whereas modulus at 100% elongation (M 100) and hardness increases with increasing filler loading.