The use of polymer blends is an effective method for altering the performance of
polymer materials and is widely employed in engineering plastics, rubber, and fiber
materials. Elastomeric blends are used for many reasons such as lowering the
compound cost, for ease of fabrication and to improve the performance of the
industrial rubber. In this study, 20 different rubber compounds were prepared by using
SMR-20 type of natural rubber and SBR-1502 type of styrene–butadiene rubber in
different levels (0, 25, 50, 75 and 100 pphr) and each recipe reinforced with carbon
black at different ratio (20, 40, 60 and 80) pphr (part per hundred). The physical
properties – such as thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity, swelling and specific
gravity were studied. The results show that the thermal conductivity and thermal
diffusivity increased with increase of loading level of carbon black and these
properties decreased with the increase of NR to SBR. The swelling property in this
work measured by change in mass method by immersed the samples in oil and water.
The swelling in water more than in oil, change in mass of the NR/SBR blends
increased with immersing time increase and decreased with carbon black increment,
and with the increment of NR percentages to SBR. The specific gravity increased with
increase of carbon black loading for all recipes.