| Abstract: | Interaction between carbon black and polymer starts during the mixing process; a primary agglomerate is formed, the composition of which is dependent upon the structure. The important carbon black properties are surface area, specific activity, structure (void, volume, anisometry), and porosity of the particles. On heat treatment of black at 3000°C., it loses its sites of high specific activity. Structure and specific activity determine incorporation time and further dispersion. During mixing, bound rubber is formed which is used as a measure of specific surface activity. In the final vulcanizate, the filler–polymer interaction is evident in reduced swelling in solvents (benzene, chloroform, cyclohexane,) etc. Below a certain critical degree of swelling, the percentage swelling is no longer dependent upon the amount of filler in the vulcanizate. Graphitized black vulcanizates exhibit in all solvents the same degree of swelling as the unfilled vulcanizate. This phenomenon is explained by the assumption of mobile adsorption of rubber chains on the carbon black surface. In untreated blacks the mobility on the surface is limited by sites of high energy of adsorption. In graphitized blacks such sites are no longer found, and swelling is unhindered by the presence of black. Reinforcement is explained by the more homegeneous distribution of tension between molecular chains due to slippage on the carbon surface. |
