Mechanical Properties of Natural Rubber/Acrylonitrile-Butadiene Rubber Blends and Their Adhesion Behavior with Steel Cords

Mechanical properties and their adhesion behavior with zinc- and brass-plated steel cords of natural rubber/acrylonitrile-butadiene blend compounds were investigated as a function of blend ratio. The Mooney viscosity and stress relaxation time were found to be lowered with increasing NBR content. Tensile modulus generally increased with increasing NBR content. Tensile stress at break stayed constant up to about 40 phr and showed minimum at , and thereafter increased with increasing NBR content. Strain at break decreased linearly below 50 phr, and above the level it showed nearly constant value. Based on the abrupt drops in elastic modulus and tan peak, the glass transition temperature of NR and NBR were found to be -55 and , respectively. In the case of NR/NBR blend compounds, two distinct transition points were observed and each transition position was not affected by NBR level indicating an incompatible nature of NR/NBR blend system. The pullout force and rubber coverage decreased to the level of about 40% to that of pure m compound, when the 50 phr of NR was replaced by NBR. However, the pure NBR compound showed the comparable adhesion performance with NR(). The sulfur concentration was found to become lower with the increased NBR content at the adhesion interface based on the Auger spectrometer results, representing a lack of adhesion layer formation, and this was explained for a possible cause of low adhesion performance with adding NBR.