The mechanical and heat aging properties of natural rubber latex modified by carbon nanodots

Due to their unique structure and tuneable physical, optical, and electronic properties, carbon nanodots (CDs) become one of the perfect nano‐materials in many fields such as biomarkers, optical sensing, and catalysis. The application of CDs in modifying polymers has also attracted much interest. In this work, a simple process was employed for introducing CDs to modify natural rubber (NR) latex. Glucose was applied as the precursor to prepare CDs by hydrothermal method, subsequently, the crude CDs were directly added to NR latex at a very lower concentration to prepare NR/CDs films. The results of mechanical properties demonstrate that the 500% modulus, tensile and tear strength of NR composites are significantly improved by the introduction of CDs. When the theoretical loading of CDs is 2 phr, the tensile strength and tear strength of NR/CDs film reach to 33.1 MPa and 56.4 N/mm, and improve 17.8% and 29.4% than NR without CDs respectively. It is particularly noteworthy that when the amount of CDs is higher than 1.5 phr, the heat‐aging resistance of NR has been enhanced. It has been confirmed by crosslink density, dynamic mechanical analysis, and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer analysis that CDs have a certain confinement effect on the mobility of rubber molecular segments through physical adsorption and chemical crosslinking. The Tube model theory was employed to calculate parameters of the network structure of NR/CDs films (based on the stress–strain curves), the results indicate that CDs give NR film more chemical crosslinking points and less entanglement network. Highlights The crude carbon nanodots are used to modify NR latex at a lower concentration The mechanical properties of NR films are obliviously improved The heat‐aging resistance of NR has been enhanced by adding carbon nanodots higher than 1.5 phr The Tube model theory are employed to analysis the crosslink network CDs give NR film more chemical crosslinking points and less entanglement network The influence of CDs on crosslink network of NR.