• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.134-142
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• 2009

Organo bifunctional silane (TESPD) is added into silica containing NR and its effects are investigated with respect to the vulcanization properties, the processability, and the physical properties. The addition of the TESPD into silica filled NR compound increases the degree of crosslinking by formation of a strong 3-dimensional network structure with silica surface via coupling reaction, which results in an improved mechanical property. It also improves the processabilities compared to the Control compound.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.240-246
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• 2015

Formation of a strong 3-dimensional interfacial network structure via chemical reaction between hydroxyl group on silica surface and NR chain by the addition of bis(triethoxysilylpropyl)tetrasulfide (TESPT) into silica-filled NR compound was observed by using Py-GC/MS and SEM. Addition of TESPT into silica-filled NR compound decreased scorch time ($t_{10}$) due to increased sulfur content, and reduced cure rate index (CRI) via continuous reaction between sulfur atoms in TESPT, which acted as a sulfur donor, and activators and/or accelerators. Addition of TESPT in the compound improved processability and mechanical properties of the compound. Overall, we observed that the addition of TESPT into the silica-filled NR compound formed a silica-TESPT-NR network, and thus the degree of crosslinking was increased resulting in improved mechanical properties.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.56 no.1
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• pp.20-31
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• 2021

There is an increasing demand for the rolling resistance reduction in truck bus radial (TBR) tires in the tire industry. In TBR tires, natural rubber is used as a base polymer to prevent wear and satisfy required physical properties (cut and chip). A binary filler system (silica and carbon black) is used to balance the durability of the tire and rolling resistance performance. In this study, natural rubber (NR) compounds applied with a binary filler system were manufactured at different cure temperatures for vulcanizate structure analysis. The vulcanizate structures were categorized into carbon black bound rubber, silica silane rubber network, and chemical crosslink density by sulfur. Regardless of the cure temperature, the cross-link density per unit content of carbon black had a greater effect on the properties than silica due to affinity with NR. The relationship analysis between the mechanical, viscoelastic properties with vulcanizate structure could be a guideline for manufacturing practical TBR compounds.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.411-416
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• 2014

Due to the polar characteristics of silica compared to carbon black, the degree of silica dispersion, which affects the mechanical properties of rubber compounds, is an important issue. Wolff first introduced the in-rubber structure of particles (${\alpha}_F$) to express the structure development in the compounds; however, with the introduction of bifunctional silanes, his theory could not explain the 3-dimensional network structure of the compounds. Later his theory was expanded to express the composite interaction parameter (in-rubber structure of the compound) (${\alpha}_C$), which included Wolff's filler-filler interaction parameter (${\alpha}_F$), however, there was no reported experimental result proving the theory. This research first experimentally expressed the in-rubber structure of the compound ${\alpha}_C$ (= ${\alpha}_F+{\alpha}_{FP}$(filler-silane-rubber interaction parameter) + ${\alpha}_P$ (rubber-rubber interaction parameter)) upon mono- and bifunctional silane treated silica filled natural rubber (NR) compounds. Using different structure silanes, i.e. PTES, OTES, TESPD, and TESPT, the ${\alpha}_C$ value of each compound was measured and calculated. The ${\alpha}_C$ value of TESPT treated silica filled compound was 1.64, which composed of ${\alpha}_F$ (0.99), ${\alpha}_{FP}$ (0.31), and ${\alpha}_P$ (0.34).