Developing Crumbed Rubber Tires / Epoxy Composite, by Surface Treatment with Different Silane Coupling Agents

Converting used tries to useful materials and avoiding harmful effects of accumulation used tires, is a great economic and environmental issue. Using of crumbing rubber of used tires CRT as filler materials shows declining in mechanical properties of CRT/polymer composites as weak bonding between CRT and polymeric matrices. This work include, CRT surface treating by three kinds of silane coupling agent, Trimethoxysilyl propyl methacrylate, 3-chloropropyl triethoxy silane and Silicic acid, before using as filler materials in epoxy matrix. 10 wt. % of non-treated and treated CRT/epoxy composite specimens have been prepared and tested to evaluate effect of CRT surface treatment into composite mechanical properties. The results show that modulus of elasticity, tensile strength, and fracture toughness of treated CRT/epoxy composite could improve by 56%, 30%, 36% respectively comparing with that of non-treated CRT/epoxy, after treating by 3-chloropropyl triethoxy silane coupling agent, whereas surface treating by other types of silane coupling agents could produce less mechnical improvement but still better that of non-treated.