Tribological properties of carbon nanotube as co-reinforcing additive in carbon black/acrylonitrile butadiene rubber composites for hydraulic seal applications

Abstract

This work investigated the cure characteristic, physical mechanical properties, and tribology behavior of carbon black filled acrylonitrile butadiene rubber composites using multi-walled carbon nanotubes as co-reinforcing additive in various contents from 0, 3, 6, 9, and 15 parts per hundred rubbers. The physical and tribological behavior was also observed in large-scale piston driven hydraulic apparatus which was specially designed for seal applications. The results suggested that the modulus and hardness were found to increase after adding multi-walled carbon nanotube whereas the tensile and tear strength were not significantly affected. Adding multi-walled carbon nanotube was found to increase the bound rubber and crosslink density. For ball-on-disc tribo-testing, it was found that the coefficient of friction of the rubber composites decreased with multi-walled carbon nanotube content and the applied loads whereas the specific wear rate was more influenced by the applied loads used. Finally, under the large-scale piston driven hydraulic test apparatus in comparison with commercial grade rubber seals, it was found that the weight loss for the acrylonitrile butadiene rubber composites with multi-walled carbon nanotube was much lower than that without multi-walled carbon nanotube. The carbon black/acrylonitrile butadiene rubber composites with 9–12 parts per hundred rubbers multi-walled carbon nanotube were recommended as the most suitable for hydraulic seal applications.