Chapter 7 Influence of Filler Loading, Blend Composition and Organic Modification on the Gas Barrier Properties of NR/NBR Blend Nanocomposites - Permeation of O2 and CO2 Abstract In this chapter the gas permeability studies done on NR/NBR/O1Mt nanocomposites are given. The studies have been done by referring mainly to the blend composition, filler loading, preparation method etc. The barrier properties have been studied using two different gases O2 and CO2 and it was found that the permeation of CO2 was higher. The permeability of gas transport was affected profoundly by blend composition and it was found that an increase in NBR component decreased the permeability to an appreciable level. The permeability was also found to decrease with the filler loading. The preparation method also influenced the gas transport behaviour. The modelling of the gas transport behaviour of the blend composites was also done using parallel mode, series model, Maxwell model and Brugmann model to permeability properties of gases on the basis of blend morphology. While Nielson model and Baradwaj model was applied to compare the experimental value based on the dispersion of the nanoclay. 1 1 The results of this chapter has been submitted for publication in Soft Matter.
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Chapter 7
Influence of Filler Loading, Blend Composition and Organic Modification on the Gas Barrier Properties
of NR/NBR Blend Nanocomposites - Permeation of O2 and CO2
Abstract
In this chapter the gas permeability studies done on NR/NBR/O1Mt
nanocomposites are given. The studies have been done by referring mainly to
the blend composition, filler loading, preparation method etc. The barrier
properties have been studied using two different gases O2 and CO2 and it was
found that the permeation of CO2 was higher. The permeability of gas
transport was affected profoundly by blend composition and it was found that
an increase in NBR component decreased the permeability to an appreciable
level. The permeability was also found to decrease with the filler loading. The
preparation method also influenced the gas transport behaviour. The
modelling of the gas transport behaviour of the blend composites was also
done using parallel mode, series model, Maxwell model and Brugmann model
to permeability properties of gases on the basis of blend morphology. While
Nielson model and Baradwaj model was applied to compare the experimental
value based on the dispersion of the nanoclay.1
1 The results of this chapter has been submitted for publication in Soft Matter.
222 Chapter 7
7.1 Introduction
Combining an elastomer of poor barrier properties with a highly impermeable
elastomer, which can be produced by an industrially viable method has
significant applications in packaging industries or coating industries.
Improvement in barrier properties of polymer blends will be beneficial for
applications in pharmaceuticals, packaging of electronic items and particularly
packaging of food products, which are sensitive to gaseous molecules. On
blending together incompatible polymers results in poor dispersion, in which
the dispersed phase is very large and there is a weak adhesion between the two
polymers. The morphological development of the blend nanocomposites
influences the transport properties of polymer blends to a great extent.
Zemboua et al.1 studied the barrier properties of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-Co-
3-hydroxyvalerate)/polylactide blends prepared by melt mixing. They
reported that PHBV imparted better water and oxygen barrier properties to
PHBV/PLA blends by acting as an efficient barrier promoter for PLA, even at
quite low ratio. Lafitte et al.2 have studied the influence of the blend
composition and morphology on the barrier properties of polyamide 11/ poly
(hydroxy amino ether) blend and found that the improvement of hydrogen
barrier properties was mainly related to the blend composition whereas a
significant effect of the blend morphology was observed on mechanical
properties in the rubbery state. Subramanian et al.3,4 have studied the barrier
properties of polymer blends and reported on the influence of morphology of
the blend on the barrier property.
However, in many cases the required property cannot be reached due toweak
adhesion and presence of voids or free volume. This adversity of the
incompatible polymers can be reduced to a great extent by incorporating a
compatibilizer which can improve the interface and modify the dispersion.
Gas barrier properties of….. 223
In immiscible polymer blends, these compatibilizers can reduce the
interfacial tension or influence other parameters like viscosity ratio which
influence the homogenous dispersion of the dispersed domains. Thus
carefully controlling the morphology, the gas transport through polymer
blends can be modified. This is mainly influenced by blend composition,
nature of blends, preparation of the blends and the presence of other
materials in the blend. The introduction of nanoparticles can impart some
significant effect in tuning up the blend morphology. Recently, a lot of work
have been reported5-8which have made use of nanoparticles as property
enhancer or compatibilizer in immiscible polymer blends. Frounchi et al.9,
have studied the gas barrier properties of PP/EPDM blend nanocomposites
and found that the oxygen and carbon dioxide permeability of the
nanocomposite reduced twice by adding only 1.5 vol% of nanoclay. Yeh et
al.10 have investigated the oxygen barrier properties of clay mineral
nanocomposites prepared from modified polyamide (MPA) and nylon-6
clay (NYC) blends and found that at 20 wt.% optimum content of NYC, the
oxygen barrier improvement of nanocomposites reached the maximum.11 All
films have been shown to possess superior oxygen barrier properties
compared to the plain PE films. Ghanbari et al12. studied the O2 barrier
properties of polymer/organoclay nanocomposites based on poly(ethylene
terephthalate) and sulfo polyester blendsand reported that for all the
nanocomposite films, the permeability is decreased in comparison to neat
PET due to both the presence of clay particles and a higher crystallinity. This
proved the strong influence of the nanoclay distribution on the barrier
properties. Bitinis13 et al. have studied the barrier properties of organoclay
filled polylactic acid/natural rubber blend bionanocomposites and observed
that organoclays were preferentially located at the interface and acted as
224 Chapter 7
compatibiliser between both polymer phases and resulted in a marked
improvement of the physical and mechanical properties of the system.
Here, this chapter reports the analysis of gas transport behaviour through
NR/NBR blend nanocomposites with reference to the blend composition, filler
loading, nature of permeant and preparation type. The purpose of the study in
discussed in this chapter is to know the effect of nanoclay in enhancing the gas
barrier properties of immiscible and incompatible NR/NBR blends. The study
also aimed in knowing the relationship between barrier properties and
morphological development of the blend nanocomposite system.
7.2 Results and discussion
7.2.1 Effect of blend composition
Barrier properties of oxygen through NR/NBR blends show improvement on
increasing the NBR content. The gas permeability values shown in Fig.7.1 shows
the extent of improvement compared to gum NR. It can be noted that for 30/70
composition 94% of improvement in gas permeability was observed (improved
about 16-fold) by adding only 30 parts, while for 70/30 and 50/50, an 84% and
82% of reduced permeability was observed. This can be attributed to the
homogenous dispersion of NR domains in the NBR matrix for 30/70 composition
although the NBR content is increased which should have contributed to the
reduction in permeation for 50/50. The SEM micrographs show that the blends
are heterogeneous in nature and that NR exists as domains in the continuous NBR
matrix. The dispersed/matrix morphology of blend offers a more tortuous path
for the penetrant14, thereby reducing the diffusivity through the membrane, which
in turn results in the reduction in permeability. For pure NR the chain flexibility
is very high due to the low glass transition temperature of NR. So NR becomes
the continuous phase for 50/50 and 70/30 composition and offers a comparatively
better permeation of O2 thereby increasing the permeability value. The
Gas barrier properties of….. 225
continuous morphology of 50/50 blend composites (Fig.7.2) also contributes to
the higher permeability15. Also the permeability of a gas molecule through a
polymeric membrane can be determined from the relationship between cohesive
energy density and activation energy given by the equation developed by Meares
(Eq.7.1)16
�� = �/(� �� (����� ………… (7.1)
Where �� is the cross section of the penetrant molecule, � �� the jump length
and NA is the Avogadro’s’ number and CED the cohesive enrgy density. The
polarity of NBR makes the cohesive energy density of NBR high and hence
results in low permeability. The reason for the decrease in permeability on
adding NBR can thus be clearly explained.
100/0 70/30 50/50 30/70 0/1000
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
Per
mea
bilit
y g/
cm2
Blend composition (NR/NBR)
Figure 7.1: Oxygen permeability of different NR/ NBR nanocomposites with varying
blend composition
226 Chapter 7
Figure 7.2: SEM of 50/50 NR/NBR blend
7.2.2 Effect of filler loading
Incorporating nanoclay into the NR/NBR polymer blend system has reduced the
gas permeability of the elastomer films (Fig 7.3 to Fig. 7.5, & Fig.7.7). The
inorganic nature of nanoclay makes it impermeable to gases. The large aspect
ratio and nano scale dimensions either in exfoliated stage or intercalated stage
present large surface area even at low concentration of nanoclay, and there by
reduces the area of cross section available for permeation. The tortuosity also is
increased in the blend and hence increases the path length of diffusing molecules.
This can be observed from the morphological data of TEM given in Fig.7.3 and
Fig. 7.4 (inset), Fig.7.6, & Fig.7.8 where the images for different filler loading
is given. The decrease in the free volume due to the densely packed polymer
chains 17 as a result of interaction between nanoclay with NR and NBR can also
be the contributing factor in decreasing the permeability.
Gas barrier properties of….. 227
0phr 1phr 2phr 5phr 10phr0
100
200
300
400
500
600P
erm
eabi
lity
(g/c
m2 )
Filler loading (phr)
Figure 7.3 Oxygen permeability of NBR nanocomposites with varying filler loading. (inset)the TEM image of NBR nanomposite at 5 phr loading.
0phr 1phr 2phr 5phr 10phr0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
Filler loading (phr)
Per
mea
bilit
y (g
m/c
m2 )
Figure 7.4 Oxygen permeability of NR nanocomposites with varying filler loading (inset) the TEM image of NR nancomposite at 5 phr loading.
228 Chapter 7
0phr 1phr 2phr 5phr 10phr0
500
1000
1500
2000P
erm
eabi
lity
(g/c
m2 )
Filler loading (phr)
Figure 7.5 Oxygen permeability of 50/50 NR/NBR blend with varying filler loading.
Figure 7.6 TEM images showing of 50/50 NR/NBR blend with 2,5 and 10phr nanoclay.
Gas barrier properties of….. 229
0phr 1phr 2phr 5phr 10phr0
100
200
300
400
500P
erm
eabi
lity
(g/c
m2 )
Filler Loading (phr)
Figure 7.7 Oxygen permeability of 30/70 NR/NBR blend with varying filler loading.
Figure 7.8 TEM images showing of 30/70 NR/NBR blend with 2,5 and 10phr nanoclay
Increasing the clay content to 10% reduced the permeability for all the blend
composite although the extent of decrease is different for different blend
composite. While for NR nanocomposite a 8 fold improvement in barrier
properties was shown the barrier property improvement was only 4 fold for
the NBR nanocomposite. While the extent of barrier property improvement
was 2 fold, for 50/50 blend nancomposites (Fig 7.7), For 30/70 (Fig 7.7) and
70/30 (Fig 7.8) blend nanocomposites showed a 2.8 fold and 1.5 fold increase
230 Chapter 7
at higher clay loading (Fig. 7.9). This shows the difference in dispersion of
the nanoclay in these blends which influence the barrier properties. It was
interesting to note that all the composites showed a levelling off at higher
concentration. It can be considered to be due to the multilayer localization or
interfacial saturation as explained in chapter 6. The stacks of nanoclay at the
interface or the NBR domains doesn’t contribute further in increasing the
barrier properties. The low degree of dispersion of clay platelets which gets
stacked together can also be another reason and can be further observed from
the TEM images. (Fig 7.10).
0phr 1phr 2phr 5phr 10phr0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
Per
mea
bilit
y (g
/cm
2 )
Filler loading (phr)
Figure 7.9 Oxygen permeability of 70/30 NR/NBR blend with varying filler loading.
Gas barrier properties of….. 231
Figure 7.10 TEM images showing 70/30 NR/NBR blend with a)2 b)5 and c)10phr nanoclay
7.2.3 Effect of gas type
The effect of size of gas molecules on the permeability property of NR/NBR
blend were also observed and is given in Fig. 7.11. The influence of penetrant
size clearly contributes to the diffusion of gas molecules. It can be observed
that for all the composition the permeability of O2 is very low compared to
CO2. It is interesting to find that the CO2 which posses a higher molecular
weight is showing higher permeability. One reason for this behaviour is the
higher solubility of C02 with rubber. Yet another reason can be explained
using Stokes–Einstein equation which explains that, diffusion of gas
molecules is inversely related to the friction exerted. The eq. (7.2) is given by
D = K�. T/f ………..(7.2)
Where KB is the Boltzmann constant, T is the absolute temperature, and f is
the friction factor which is given by eq (7.3).
f = 6πμR� .……….(7.3)
The increase in radius of the gas molecule the friction factor also increases by
the relation and there is a corresponding decrease of permeability. Also on
considering the kinetic diameter of the two gas molecules also explains this
232 Chapter 7
reduction of permeability for O2. It is reported that among the various
descriptions of the sizes of molecules, that most applicable to transport
phenomena is called the "kinetic diameter" of molecules. The kinetic diameter
is a reflection of the smallest effective dimension of a given molecule. It is
given that for O2 the kinetic diameter is 3.4X 10-10m while for CO2 it is 3.3
x10-10 m.This shows that C02 is having lower kinetic diameter than O2 and
therefore C02 shows higher permeability than C02. This point is included in
the revised thesis.
50/50(1) 50/50(2) 50/50(5) 50/50(10)0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
Per
mea
bilit
y (g
/cm
2 )
Blend composition (NR/NBR/01Mt)
Oxygen Carbon dioxide
Figure 7.11 Comparison of oxygen permeability and carbon dioxide permeability of 50/50 NR/NBR blend with varying filler loading
7.3 Models for permeation
7.3.1 Theoretical prediction of polymer blends
Models such as Parallel model, Series model, Maxwell model and Brugmann
model have been applied to the blend system to predict the permeability
properties of gases in homogeneous and heterogeneous blends, on the basis of
Gas barrier properties of….. 233
blend morphology. Equation 7.4 represents the series model where the
components are considered to be arranged series to each other and equation
(7.5) represents the parallel model
= !"! + �"� .………. (7.4)
1 % = "! !% + "� �.% … … … … … . (7.5� .……….(7.5)
where P is the permeability of the blend, P1 and P2 are the permeabilities of
components 1 and 2, and φ1 and φ2 are the volume fractions of components 1
and 2, respectively.
Two theoretically based models, the Maxwell model and Bruggeman model
that were developed to describe transport properties in micro particulate
dispersion of one component in a continuous matrix of a second component
are also applied to fit the permeation data. The Maxwell model and
Bruggeman model given in equation (7.6) and (7.7) respectively corresponds
to a morphology with continuous and dispersed phase structure.