Fatigue and hysteresis behavior of halloysite nanotubes‐filled natural rubber (SMR L and ENR 50) nanocomposites

The effect of various halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) loading on fatigue life, stress–strain behavior, and hysteresis of HNTs/Standard Malaysian Rubber (SMR) L and HNTs/epoxidized natural rubber (ENR) 50 nanocomposites were studied. The addition of HNTs caused decrement in fatigue life for both nanocomposites at any extension ratio. Generally, HNTs/SMR L nanocomposites showed higher fatigue life than ENR 50 nanocomposites. Addition of more HNTs caused decrement of stress for HNTs/SMR L nanocomposites, whereas HNTs/ENR 50 nanocomposites showed vice versa at any strain. This result was supported by the graph of accumulated strain energy against extension ratio. Hysteresis values increased with addition of HNTs in both nanocomposites where of HNTs/ENR 50 nanocomposites exhibited higher hysteresis than HNTs/SMR L nanocomposites at any HNTs loading. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 2013