Nanomechanical Mapping of NR/BR Blends Using Atomic Force Microscopy

The majority of rubber is used in blends, most notably in tires, and thus there is an increasing desire for micro-characterization techniques that can discriminate between the phases in a blend, and provide quantitative information about the physical properties of each polymer phase, leading to a better understanding of blend properties.

The AM-FM technique is a relatively new AFM technique, which has been developed by Asylum Research to measure viscoelastic properties of a variety of materials.  It combines the Amplitude Modulation mode (AM) with the quantitative Frequency Modulation (FM) mode, thus providing quantitative nano-mechanical measurements along with characterization of the topography.

In this paper, the effect of cure temperature on the morphology and mechanical properties (loss tangent and stiffness) of each polymer phase in NR/BR blends will be discussed.