Investigation of the usability of activated carbon as a filling material in nitrile butadiene rubber/natural rubber components and modeling by regression analysis

Abstract

Activated carbon is a versatile material with a wide range of applications due to its porous structure and large surface area. In this study, activated carbon was manufactured from cellulose using zinc chloride and phosphoric acid activation agents, and it was characterized using Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), Field-Emission Scanning Electron Microscopes (FE-SEM), Energy Distribution Spectroscopy (EDS), mapping, and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrophotometer (FTIR). Two different types of activated carbon utilized as a filler in Nitrile Butadiene Rubber (NBR)/Natural Rubber (NR) blends at different proportions (%0, %5, %10, %15 and 20%), and compared its properties to those of carbon black. The results showed that the addition of activated carbon improved the mechanical properties of the rubber blends, including hardness, tensile strength, and unit elongation. Furthermore, the experimental data obtained were used to examine the effects of carbon black, activated carbon salt, and activated carbon acid values on density, hardness, tensile strength, and percentage elongation variables using Multiple Linear Regressions (MLR). These models provided successful results in predicting the data with fewer experiments. The results have the potential to contribute to the promotion of the use of environmentally friendly materials in future research and to be an important step towards a sustainable industry.