It is of significant interest to evaluate the strong
interface region between the TRG and NR using damping curvesshown in Fig. 10(b). Interestingly, we have observed additional
relaxation (formation of the hump) for TRG filled NR composites
owing to the formation of strong thick interface between TRG and
NR. Moreover, the glass transition temperature was shifted to a
large extent (15 ◦C) due to strong – interactions associated with
bonds of TRG and double bonds of NR. This strongly indicates
that a large number of NR chains have been immobilized by the TRG
filler surface leading to the formation of a rigid amorphous phase as
understood from theCp measurements already discussed. In fact
the – interactions anchor the isoprene units of NR chains with
the TRG layers leading to the formation of rigid network around the
filler surface. Comparing our results with already reported studies
of Potts et al. (2012) and Zhan et al. (2011) the storage modulus
was almost similar, but the effect of the TRG filler on the increase
in glass transition temperature was negligible in their reports.