Effect of butyl imidazole and ionic liquid on self-healing efficiency of conductive bromobutyl rubber composites

This work aims to examine the self-healing ability of bromobutyl rubber (BIIR) composites and evaluate the optimal concentration of butylimidazole (IM) and/or ionic liquid (IL) existing inside the BIIR matrix. Self-healing BIIR composite was prepared by mixing the BIIR with the carbon nanotubes (CNT) and conductive carbon black (CCB) at the quantity 5 and 7.5 part per hundred of rubber (phr) respectively under the variation of IM and/or IL at 0, 3 and 5 phr. The tensile properties of BIIR/CCB-CNT composites were used for analyzing the self-healing efficiency based on the difference of tensile strength, elongation at break and modulus at before and after cutting. The result showed that tensile modulus and tensile strength of BIIR/CCB-CNT increased with increasing IM content, but elongation at break of BIIR/CCB-CNT is decreased. However, the addition of IL reduced the overall properties but has increased healing ability. The use of IM and IL can perform great recovery of the composites and also incorporation of both IM/IL heals the composites breakages. It was found that the addition of 5 phr of both IM and IL exhibited the suitable potential of performing self-healing efficiency of the BIIR/CCB-CNT composites due to superior of cation and anion movements.