Since the use of carbon black in tyre production has given rise to an ecological threat to health, precipitated silica is being used increasingly widely. Organosilane technology has been used for more than 60 years to combine different organic and mineral fillers, and its competitiveness has increased sharply with the development of highly dispersed grades of silica and sulphide silane coupling agents. In the 1990s, the introduction of this technology in the production of car-tyre tread rubbers, which have been called ''green'' tyres, led to a reduction in environmental pollution by carcinogen-containing products of production and wear. Rolling losses and the associated fuel consumption and pollution of the atmosphere by exhaust gases were reduced. At the same time, road-holding characteristics on wet and snow-covered road surfaces were improved without any reduction in tread wear resistance. This balance of car-tyre properties could not be achieved using carbon black, including new two-phase and inversion carbon black. Improvement in the quality of dispersion of silica with the use of the new technology made it possible to exploit the advantage it has over carbon black in terms of its ability to reinforce crosslinked points of the elastomer network, which can be regarded as one of the outstanding breakthroughs achieved at the end of the twentieth century in the compounding of tyre rubbers. Increasing attention is being paid by researchers and production engineers to the possibility of using nanofillers. The development of new nanotechnologies for the filling of rubbers with layered kaolines is continuing. In Russia, reports have appeared on the development and practical application in rubber of polyorganosilsesquioxanes - nanodispersed products of the hydrolytic polycondensation of different trifunctional organosilanes and nanocarbon.
Current approaches to solving the problem of elastomer reinforcement
Aktuelle Wege zur Lösung des Problems der Elastomer-Verstärkung
International Polymer Science and Technology ; 36 , 3 ; 35-39
2009
5 Seiten, 82 Quellen
Article (Journal)
English