The mechanical performance of natural rubber latex filled carbon nanotubes (CNT) coated kevlar fabric / Nor Azreen Abu Bakar

Coated fabrics are widely used for technical textiles of late and there have been some interests in coating high strength fabrics with natural rubber (NR) latex. However, the addition of fillers in the form of carbon nanotube (CNT) and its relation with the mechanical properties of fabrics are not fully understood. The purpose of fillers addition is to get the desired properties of the NR latex as fillers have various functions that can modify the properties of latex. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to investigate the effects of nanofillers on the mechanical properties of high strength woven coated fabric. Kevlar fabrics were single-dipped coated with pre vulcanized NR latex and CNT filled NR latex. The content of multi-walled (MW) CNT in liquid dispersion was varied at 1 phr, 3 phr and 5 phr. The neat, NR latex coated and CNT added NR latex coated samples were tested for puncture resistance, tensile strength and tearing strength. For the puncture resistance test, three different puncture probe shapes were used to test the fabrics which were in the form of conical, ogival and hemispherical shapes. The results suggest that the NR latex coated fabric have higher puncture resistance for about 5 to 25% in comparison with the neat fabric. The result also showed that the CNT filled influenced the properties of the coated fabric by increasing the tensile strength and tearing strength by about 8 to 21% in comparisons with the neat fabric.