The original form of Natural Rubber (NR) has limited usage despite its excellent elasticity and reversible deformability. Further improvement of its undesired properties, i.e. low hardness, durability and tear resistance will allow for application of NR on a broader scale. Traditional reinforcing materials such as carbon black have indicated improvement in NR-based composites. However, the increasing range of newly emerging applications comprising polymeric composites motivates researchers to focus on developing NR-based composites with better physical properties. Many nanoscale fillers have been widely researched to attain extraordinary properties in NR based products. Among the different nanostructures, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been widely examined for NR modification.Addition of a tiny amount of well-dispersed CNTs to NR allows for significant improvements in physical properties of NR. Preparing nanocomposites comprising CNTs and other types of fillers also demonstrates enhancement of NR properties. Besides improvements in mechanical properties, the presence of CNTs considerably improves other properties of NR, such as thermal stability as well as electrical and thermal conductivity. However, owing to interactions between individual CNTs as well as CNTs and other components (NR or other fillers), property improvement varies depending on the type of fillers and their ratio in NR. This review summarises the reported processing conditions and property improvements in NR reinforced with CNTs as a solefiller or with other additive fillers. This paper will help to better understand the status of research on developing an NR/CNT nanocomposite and discover challenges and obstacles that need to be resolved.

中文翻译：

---

基于碳纳米管的天然橡胶纳米复合材料的研究进展

天然橡胶（NR）的原始形式尽管具有出色的弹性和可逆变形性，但用途有限。不良性能的进一步改善，即低硬度，耐用性和抗撕裂性将使NR的应用范围更广。传统的增强材料（如炭黑）已表明对NR基复合材料的改进。但是，包括聚合物复合材料在内的新兴应用的范围不断扩大，促使研究人员将重点放在开发具有更好物理性能的NR基复合材料上。人们已经广泛研究了许多纳米级填料，以在NR基产品中获得非凡的性能。在不同的纳米结构中，碳纳米管（CNT）已广泛用于NR改性。在NR中添加少量分散良好的CNT可显着改善NR的物理性能。制备包含CNT和其他类型的填料的纳米复合材料还证明了NR性能的增强。除了改善机械性能外，CNT的存在还大大改善了NR的其他性能，例如热稳定性以及导电性和导热性。然而，由于各个CNT以及CNT与其他成分（NR或其他填充剂）之间的相互作用，性能的改善取决于填充剂的类型及其在NR中的比例。这篇综述总结了用碳纳米管作为唯一填充剂或其他添加剂填充的NR所报告的加工条件和性能改进。