Volatile organic compound absorption and photocatalytic degradation of natural rubber foam with modified TiO2 composites

The present work aims to study the effects of modified titanium dioxide (TiO2) with zinc oxide on mechanical properties and volatile organic compounds (VOC) absorption of the natural rubber (NR) foam composites filled with ZnO-TiO2 at different concentration. It was found that the values of 100% modulus, tensile strength, hardness and density increased with varying the ZnO-TiO2 concentration. Absorption and photodegradation of methylene blue (MB) solution were the composition determination indicator increased significantly due to the photocatalytic mechanism. This mechanism leads to the rapid generation of reactive hydroxyl radicals, which react with the methyl and methylene groups on the methylene blue molecule with increasing the irradiation time under lighting conditions compared to dark conditions especially NR with the addition of modified ZnO-TiO2 at 5 phr. In terms of the relationship between absorption and volume change under benzene gas condition (BZ-95), it was found that natural rubber (NR) composite foam filled with ZnO-TiO2 can absorb benzene gas higher and longer than natural rubber composite foam without added ZnO-TiO2