The morphology of zinc dimethacrylate reinforced elastomers investigated by SEM and TEM

The morphologies of various ZDMA-reinforced elastomers, including styrene butadiene rubber (SBR), ethylene-propylene-diene monomer (EPDM), nitrile-butadiene rubber (NBR), ethylene-propylene monomer (EPM), poly(α-octylene-co-ethylene) elastomer (POE) and hydrogenated nitrile-butadiene rubber (HNBR), were studied by using SEM and TEM. The observation on the compounds showed that during the compounding process, the dimension of ZDMA particles reduced, and could even form dispersion structures with nanometer size (<100 nm). It is shear stress of compounds during mixing rather than polarity of matrix rubber that plays the most important role to determine dispersion state of ZDMA in compounds. High shear stress facilitates dispersion of ZDMA. Only in elastomers having the lower shear stress such as POE and EPM, original dimension features of ZDMA particles make considerable effects on dispersion level of ZDMA in compounds. The observation on cured composites displayed that there are two kinds of micro-dispersed structures: micron dispersion—residual ZDMA particles and nano-dispersion—the aggregate of poly-ZDMA. The higher saturation and polarity of rubbers and the better dispersion level of ZDMA in compounds benefit in situ polymerization of ZDMA, resulting in the lower amount of residual ZDMA particles (micron dispersion). In the elastomer with higher saturation such as POE, EPM, EPDM and HNBR, the dimensions of nano-dispersions are slightly larger. For the ZDMA/POE, formula effect on morphology of the composite was also discussed. It was found that the loading of ZDMA and peroxide impact remarkably on the amount and dimension of nano-particles in the composite.