The effect of zinc disorbate as a self-healing agent on the mechanical and physical properties of ionically grafted natural rubber / Faris Haykal Zaky Irfan Zaky

In this study, sorbic acid (SA) was used to graft zinc disorbate on the natural rubber (NR) using in situ method with zinc oxide (ZnO). The study was done by varying the amount of SA (0-12 parts per hundred part of rubber) to graft zinc disorbate (ZDS) onto the rubber chain. The effect of ZDS was studied on tensile properties, crosslink density and fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analysis. The FTIR spectra shown the formation of carboxylate salt at 1592 cm-1 which proves that ZDS is properly grafted onto the NR chain. ZDS played an important role as a self-healing agent and improved the tensile properties and crosslink density of the NR/DCP compound. The study reveals that the tensile strength increased with the increment of sorbic acid (SA). The sample with 12 phr SA shows the highest tensile strength before and after self-healing at 11.21 MPa and 0.80 MPa respectively. The study also found that compound with 12 phr SA exhibited the highest crosslink density. It proved that the presence of ZDS in rubber chain will provide reinforcement on the NR and confirmed that ZDS is potentially can be a suitable substance to act as a self-healing agent.