Lotfy Vivian F, Basta Altaf H, Shafik Emad S
Cellulose and Paper Department, National Research Centre, Dokki, Giza, 12622, Egypt.
Polymers and Pigmemts Department, National Research Centre, Dokki, Giza, 12622, Egypt.
Sci Rep. 2025 Apr 1;15(1):11035. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-92404-y.
Recently, minimizing petroleum resources as well as safely disposing of agro-wastes are essential for the production process to comply with environmental legislation. Bio-filler as an alternative to non-safety carbon black (CB) from petroleum resources in the production of rubber composites is investigated by many researchers, but unfortunately it leads to deterioration of the properties of rubber composites. To avoid this drawback, different agro-wastes (rice straw, date palm fiber, and reed (Arundo donax L.) with different chemical constituents as precursors of biofillers (biochars) are assessed toward the performance of ethylene-propylene-diene terpolymer rubber (EPDM). The role of replacing parts of CB with biochar on the rheological characteristics, physico-mechanical properties, hardness, swelling, and crosslinking density of EPDM composites is studied. The results proved the efficient low replacing ratio of biochar towards increasing the minimum and maximum torque; this indicates a homogeneous filler structure and crosslinking interactions between the components matrix as emphasized from the morphological analysis of EPDM rubber. The reverse trend is noticed on increasing the replacement ratio over 25%, where it deteriorates the tensile strength in comparison to pristine CB. The data demonstrated the most efficient biochar, which is derived from RS. The formulation containing 75% CB and 25% RS-biochar provided EPDM with tensile strength (14.4 MPa), higher than the pure CB (12.45 MPa). Moreover, this optimum formulation provided high crosslinking density, high hardness shore A, and swelling resistance of motor oil and toluene when compared to EPDM with pure carbon black. This promising finding trend is not noticed in the literature on using biochars, which usually caused the deterioration in properties of rubber products.
最近，尽量减少石油资源以及安全处置农业废弃物对于生产过程符合环境法规至关重要。许多研究人员对生物填料作为橡胶复合材料生产中石油资源非安全炭黑（CB）的替代品进行了研究，但不幸的是，这会导致橡胶复合材料性能下降。为避免这一缺点，评估了具有不同化学成分的不同农业废弃物（稻草、枣椰纤维和芦苇（芦竹））作为生物填料（生物炭）前体对乙丙三元橡胶（EPDM）性能的影响。研究了用生物炭替代部分CB对EPDM复合材料流变特性、物理机械性能、硬度、溶胀和交联密度的作用。结果证明，生物炭以较低的替代率能有效提高最小和最大扭矩；这表明填料结构均匀，且从EPDM橡胶的形态分析可知，各组分基体之间存在交联相互作用。当替代率超过25%时，出现相反趋势，与原始CB相比，拉伸强度会下降。数据表明，源自稻草的生物炭效率最高。含有75%CB和25%稻草生物炭的配方使EPDM的拉伸强度（14.4MPa）高于纯CB（12.45MPa）。此外，与纯炭黑的EPDM相比，这种最佳配方具有高交联密度、高邵氏A硬度以及对机油和甲苯的耐溶胀性。在使用生物炭的文献中未发现这种有前景的发现趋势，使用生物炭通常会导致橡胶产品性能下降。
