• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.54-60
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• 2019

The rapid development of the automobile industry is an important factor that led to the dramatic development of synthetic rubber. The tread part of tire that comes in direct contact with the road surface is related to the service life of the tire. Rubber compounds used in tire treads are often blended with SBR (styrene-butadiene rubber) and BR (butadiene rubber) to satisfy physical property requirements. However, when two or more kinds of rubber are blended, phase separation and silica dispersion problems may occur due to non-uniform mixing of the rubber. Therefore, in this study, we synthesized an SBR copolymer with the same composition as that of a typical SBR/BR blend compound by controlling butadiene content during ESBR (emulsion styrene-butadiene rubber) synthesis. Subsequently, silica filled compounds were manufactured using the synthesized ESBR, and their mechanical properties, dynamic viscoelasticity, and crosslinking density were compared with those of the SBR/BR blended compound. When the content of butadiene was increased in the silica filled compound, the cure rate accelerated due to an increased number of allylic positions, which typically exhibit higher reactivity. However, the T-2 compound with increased butadiene content by synthesis less likely to show an increase in crosslink density due to poor silica dispersion. In addition, the T-3 compound containing high cis BR content showed high crosslink density due to its monosulfide crosslinking structure. Because of the phase separation, SBR/BR blend compounds were easily broken and showed similar $M_{100%}$ and $M_{300%}$ values as those of other compounds despite their high crosslink density. However, the developed blend showed excellent abrasion resistance due to the high cis-1,4 butadiene content and low rolling resistance due to the high crosslink density.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.70-77
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• 2011

A new piece of test equipment, the slurry wear tester (SWT), was proposed in this study to evaluate the wear behavior of rubber vulcanizate in environmental contact with slurry. Natural rubber (NR) and chloroprene rubber (CR) were chosen as the basic matrices to test the slurry wear. The fluids used to fill the chamber of the SWT were 35% HCl and NaCl solution. The Akron abrasion test was used for comparison with SWT. According to the results of the Akron abrasion test, CR vulcanizate abraded more rapidly than NR vulcanizate under same test condition. It was found that the hysteresis of rubber was key factor contribute to the wear behavior. However, the slurry wear rate of the NR and CR vulcanizates did not change significantly, even with changes in the concentration of acid and the immersion time in both HCl and NaCl solutions; the fluid decreased the friction between the abrasive paper and the specimen. It also reduced the heat generated from repeated deformation and wear debris at the surface of the SWT's abrasion arm. Thus, these phenomena affected the wear behavior of rubber vulcanizate and caused different results in the conventional Akron abrasion test. This outcome could have resulted in an incorrect analysis if the slurry wear behavior of the rubber vulcanizate was estimated by the conventional abrasion tests, which are operated under dry conditions.