Fig. 6c and d displayed the temperature dependent tand curves of the various rubber composites. Conventionally, the greater tand value of the rubber composites in the region of 20 to 10C can be accounted to figure out the superior anti-skid properties of the rubber composites under wet conditions and lower tand value of the rubber materials in the range of 50–60C indicates the low rolling resistance of the rubber stuffs [34,35]. We can see from the respective figures that the tand values of the EG and i-MG filled SBR/BR based composites in the region of 20 to 10C were higher than tand values of the only BR based nanocomposites. So, after the homogeneous mixing of SBR with BR in the presence of different nanofillers, the anti-skid property under wet conditions of the BR vulcanizates was significantly improved. At the same time, rolling resistance of the SBR/BR based nanocomposites was lowered (lower tand values of the SBR/BR based composites in the temperature range of 50–60C) compared to the rolling resistance of SBR vulcanizates. EG/i-MG containing rubber composites in the presence of CB showed superior storage modulus, antiskid properties and lower rolling resistance compared to the only CB loaded rubber composites, which was due to the better interactions and interfacial adhesion between i-MG sheets and the rubber matrices.
4.7. TGA analysis
Fig. 7a shows the thermo gravimetric curves of the graphite, EG, o-EG and i-MG flakes. o-EG showed comparably less thermal stability than the EG, which was due to the degradation of number of polar groups present on the surface of o-EG. The small weight loss of o-EG around 200C was due to the decomposition of unstable oxygen containing functional groups present on the surface of o-EG. Another partial weight loss around 700 C can be attributed to the subtraction of more stable oxyge