4. Conclusions
Alkanolamide was synthesized from RBDPS-palm oil and
diethanolamine. Alkanolamide can be utilized as a new additive
in silica-filled natural rubber compounds. The incorporation
of Alkanolamide enhanced the cure rate, and
reduced the scorch time of silica-filled natural rubber compounds.
The results also indicated that Alkanolamide can be
utilized as a plasticizer to increase the elongation at break
and resilience. The incorporation of Alkanolamide also
improved the reinforcement level of silica to natural rubber
compounds. The tensile modulus, hardness, tensile strength
and crosslink density of the silica-filled natural rubber vulcanisates
were enhanced, especially up to 5.0 phr loading