Metal finishing Q&As since 1989
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ZnO whiskers as rubber additive
We manufacture rubber rolls used as drafting elements, by the textile spinning industry.Will appreciate infomation on the use of ZnO whiskers as an additive to impart antistatic/ESD property to rubber compounds based on NBR. Thank You
Maqbool AhmadRubber Technologist - Karachi, Pakistan
July 14, 2009
There's a patent on this anti-static technology in the United States, U.S. Patent# 5391432. The zinc oxide will allow electricity to conduct through the polymer, instead of accumulating. I've seen similar work using aluminum oxide whiskers to increase thermal conductivity. The whiskers should set somewhat perpendicular to the polymer chains, so they would likely conduct better than random-shaped particles.
You should already be using zinc oxide
[affil links] as a vulcanization catalyst. Should you chose to go about using these, use less ZnO catalyst.
- Toledo, Ohio
August 1, 2009
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