The Interaction between Carbon Black and Sulfur during Vulcanization
Abstract The mechanism of the reinforcement of rubber by carbon black has until recently been interpreted from the physical point of view. According to the researches of P. A. Rebinder and coworkers the extent of the interaction between the filler and the rubber is given by the decrease in the free energy of the system resulting from the wetting of 1 cm2 of the surface of the filler particles by rubber. The rubber is bound to the surface of the carbon black particles through adsorption and forms around these particles an extended film which is characterized by high strength; in this state the rubber is referred to as “bound” or film-like rubber. In systems in which such adsorbed rubber is present there appears on the surface of the filler particles an effect which resembles a kind of “crystallization” of rubber which results in a strengthening of the interaction between individual chains and hence in increased strength of the rubber. According to Kusov, at optimum filling of the rubber with carbon black the mixture constitutes a continuous mass—a molecular space lattice with carbon particles situated in its nodes.