Improvements of physical, mechanical and biodegradation properties of polybutadiene rubber insulators by chitosan and silica nanoparticles.

1,4-cis-Polybutadiene rubber(1,4-cis pBR) as an insulation material is developing that will provide superior thermal insulation properties, flexibility, toughness by natural polymers such as chitosan(CS) and silica nanoparticles. This material is widely used in the insulation industries specially architecture. This research concerns physical, mechanical properties and also biodegradation of 1,4-cis pBR, which to be composed with the natural polymers such as CS. Silica nanoparticles were used as filler to improve the physical and mechanical properties of 1,4-cis pBR. To evaluating its physical and mechanical properties, stretching and bending and impact tests were used and the results show some improvement in these properties. Our observations show that temperature plays an important role as main factor in order to improve the mechanical properties of nanocomposites. Similar improvements in tensile modulus and strength have been observed for 1,4-cis pBR/CS-silica nanoparticles.