Enhanced thermal conductivity and antistatic property of energy-saving tyres

Tyres made of natural rubber (NR) filled with silica (SiO2) are usually called energy-saving tyres with excellent resistance to wet slip and low friction resistance. It’s noted that the tyres tend to aging and produce static electricity caused by poor electrical and thermal conductivity of NR and SiO2. Therefore, it’s urgent to prepare NR/SiO2 composites with enhanced thermal conductivity and antistatic performance. Here, a simple, efficient, and green method is applied to obtain graphene nanosheets (GNs) compatible well with NR, and the influence of GNs dosage on the properties of SiO2/NR composites are explored. The results show that GNs are helpful to improve mechanical properties and solvent resistance of SiO2/NR composites. Outstandingly, the thermal conductivity and electrical conductivity of 2.0wt%GNs/SiO2/NR composites are increased by 60% and 5 orders of magnitude compared with SiO2/NR composites, reaching to 0.29W·m-1·K-1 and 4.2×10-8 S/m respectively. It’s expected that GNs can become a candidate for improving thermal conductivity and antistatic properties of energy-saving tyres.