Nanoscale Res Lett (2009) 4:420–430 Fig. 5 Bright ﬁeld TEM images of gel ﬁlled samples for a SBNS1/4, b NRSBS1/4, c SBNS1/16, and d NRSBS1/16 427 1400 1310 1300 1240 1110 700 540 430 370 360 123 Table 3 Tensile properties of gel ﬁlled samples Young’s modulus (MPa) Modulus at 300% elongation (MPa) Elongation at break (%) modulus at 300% elongation is accompanied by substantial decrease in elongation at break. The tensile stress-elonga- tion traces of NR and SBR systems exhibit completely different nature, as expected. In the case of SBR gel ﬁlled NR systems, very high elongation at break with a tendency to undergo strain-induced crystallization can be found (Fig. 6). However, for NS gels ﬁlled SBR (given as Figure S2 of Supplementary Information), SBR matrix show plastic deformation after attaining the maximum stress at about 100% strain level for all the systems studied. Pres- ence of viscoelastic ﬁllers generates considerable rein- forcement without changing the inherent nature of the tensile plots. Gels with much higher TS than the neat rubber offer greater resistance to tensile deformation, System NR NRSBS1/2 NRSBS1/4 NRSBS1/8 NRSBS1/16 SBR SBNS1/2 SBNS1/4 SBNS1/8 SBNS1/16 T.S. (MPa) 1.86 1.97 2.06 2.10 2.14 – – – – – Fmax (MPa) – – – – – 0.29 0.35 0.38 0.41 0.43 0.70 0.81 0.90 0.96 1.05 1.36 1.38 1.43 1.46 1.53 0.31 0.37 0.38 0.41 0.43 0.29 0.34 0.37 0.40 0.43