Abstract
The conventional carbon black filler, used in tread formulations, is being replaced with silica with the development of “green tires” in the tire industry. For this, the addition of a processing aid containing zinc ion was required as a dispersing agent and lubricant However, zink being a heavy metal, zinc-free processing aids (ZFAs) are needed to satisfy global environmental issues. Therefore, this study pre sented a series of catalytically synthesized ZFAs and studied the effects of replacing “Y” zinc-containing processing aids (ZCAs) in a silica tread compounds. Interestingly, the rubber composite replacing ZCAs with ZFAs in 2 phr (parts per hundred rubber) improved both its tensile strength and elongation by as much as 31% and 20%, respectively. In addition, the rubber compounds with ZFAs exhibited a two-fold i enhancement in fatigue properties over those with ZCAs. Furthermore, pneumatic tires were fabricated from the rubber compounds containing ZFAs and compared against tires with ZCAs. The tires containing ZFAs rubber composite showed enhanced dry and wet braking and rolling resistance due to enhanced dispersion of silica in the rubber matrix. These results show that rubber composites prepared with ZFAs maybe promising in tire engineering applications.
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