*Article* **The E**ff**ect of OMMT on the Properties of Vehicle Damping Carbon Black-Natural Rubber Composites**

#### **Wei Liu 1,2, Lutao Lv <sup>1</sup> , Zonglin Yang <sup>1</sup> , Yuqing Zheng <sup>1</sup> and Hui Wang 1,3,\***


Received: 20 July 2020; Accepted: 25 August 2020; Published: 31 August 2020

**Abstract:** In this study, the filled natural rubber (NR) was prepared with organic montmorillonite (OMMT) and carbon black (CB). The effects of the amount of OMMT on the properties of CB/NR composites were investigated by measuring the physical and mechanical properties, compression set and compression heat properties, processing properties and damping properties. The formulation was optimized depending on the different conditions of end applications and the damping properties of rubber were maximized without affecting the other properties of the rubber. The results showed that the rubber composite system filled with 2 phr (parts per hundreds of rubber) OMMT had better mechanical properties and excellent damping performance.

**Keywords:** organic montmorillonite; natural rubber; damping properties; mechanical properties
