Pigment Reinforcement
Abstract This paper considers the reinforcement of rubber by various agents, but the point of view is taken from a rather new position. As a result the familiar conclusions are reached, but the new aspect has some points of interest. The first thing is to define the meaning of the term “reinforcement”, and for the purpose of this paper it is used to indicate energy. The extension of rubber and its compounds involves the input of energy, which increases continuously to a maximum at which breakdown occurs. This paper is a consideration of the energy relationships between rubber and pigment under extension. A familiar way of comparing the reinforcing powers of rubber pigments is to compare the total energies of resilience of the compounds containing the pigments. Pigments are compared on a basis of equal volumes. The resilient energy figures compared are those of the whole compound. For the purpose of this investigation an attempt is made to analyze the total energy value and assign a certain proportion of it to the rubber and the remainder to the pigment. However, it must not be understood that the pigment as such has an energy value like rubber. The addition of pigment causes an energy change in the rubber compound which can be associated with that pigment. To make the idea clearer it may be useful to express it in an elementary mathematical form.