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A feasible method of silica dispersion by introducing a pre-vulcanized gel in the natural rubber matrix

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Abstract

Targeting towards the challenge of global tyre industries of producing green and sustainable tyre, the idea of introducing pre-vulcanized natural rubber (NR) gel into highly silica loaded NR composite may prevail in upcoming days. The high crosslinked pre-vulcanized NR gel was prepared by a sulfur curing system from NR latex. Incorporation of the gel in dry and latex stage mixing assisted in the breaking of agglomerated particles of silica into finer aggregates resulted homogeneous dispersion of silica filler evident from the morphological analysis (FESEM and AFM). Consequently, > 10% reduction in rolling resistance (RR), 12-units reduction in heat build-up (HBU), and > 15% reduction in RR, 24-units reduction in HBU were evident in dry and latex mixing composites, respectively. Furthermore, the drop in viscosity and diminution in die swell of the NR composites indicates a clear improvement in the processing behavior of the gel embedded compounds. Thus, in accordance with the entire performance of the compounds, it can be highly recommended as a heavy vehicle tyre tread compound.

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Acknowledgements

Authors would like to acknowledge the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur and Apollo Tyres Pvt. Ltd, Chennai for their financial support and all kinds of facilities. The authors are also thankful to the Central Research Facility of IIT Kharagpur for carrying out the different characterizations of the samples. The author also likes to thank Mr. Rajesh De, Junior Technician/Junior Laboratory Assistant, Rubber Technology Centre, IIT Kharagpur.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Rubber Technology Centre, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur-721302, WB, Kharagpur, India

    Abhijit Bera, Debabrata Ganguly, Roumita Hore & Santanu Chattopadhyay

  2. Apollo Tyres Limited, 600018, Tamil Nadu, Chennai, India

    Jyoti Prakash Rath, S. Ramakrishnan, Job Kuriakose & S. K. P. Amarnath

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  1. Abhijit Bera
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Contributions

Abhijit Bera: Conceptualization, Writing—Original draft preparation; Writing—Reviewing and Editing, Debabrata Ganguly: Writing- Reviewing and Editing, Methodology, Roumita Hore: Writing- Reviewing and Editing, Methodology, Jyoti Prakash Rath: Project administration, S. Ramakrishnan: Project administration, Job Kuriakose: Project administration, S. K. P. Amarnath: Project administration, Writing—Reviewing and Editing, Santanu Chattopadhyay: Supervision.

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Correspondence to Santanu Chattopadhyay.

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Bera, A., Ganguly, D., Hore, R. et al. A feasible method of silica dispersion by introducing a pre-vulcanized gel in the natural rubber matrix. J Polym Res 30, 124 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10965-023-03501-3

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