Surface Activated Pyrolytic Carbon Black: A Dual Functional Sustainable Filler for Natural Rubber Composites

• Published in: ChemSusChem Vol. 17; no. 2; pp. e202301001 - n/a
• Main Author: Abdul Sattar, Mohammad
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Germany Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 22-01-2024
• Subjects: Activated carbon; Carbon black; Emissions; end-of-life tires; Energy consumption; Fillers; glass transition; Glass transition temperature; interfacial interactions; Ionic liquids; Mechanical properties; Natural rubber; Pollution abatement; pyrolytic carbon black; Tires; viscoelastic properties; Zinc oxide; Zinc oxides; interfacial interactions; end-of-life tires; ionic liquids; pyrolytic carbon black; glass transition; viscoelastic properties
• ISSN: 1864-5631; 1864-564X
• DOI: 10.1002/cssc.202301001

The significant rise in end‐of‐life tires (ELTs) globally poses immediate environmental and human health risks. Therefore, to promote ELTs recycling and to reduce tire industry carbon emissions, herein we present a facile approach for fine‐tuning the interfacial interactions between pyrolytic carbon black (P‐CB) obtained from ELTs and natural rubber (NR) matrix using phosphonium‐based ionic liquid (PIL). The reinforcing effect of PIL‐activated P‐CB was studied by replacing the furnace‐grade carbon black (N330‐CB) with varying PIL and P‐CB loadings. Adding PIL improved the filler dispersion and the cross‐linking kinetics with a substantially reduced zinc oxide (ZnO) loading. Considering the cross‐linking and viscoelastic properties, it was concluded that the composite, P‐CB/N330‐CB‐PIL (1.5)+ZnO (1) with half substitution of N330‐CB with P‐CB synergistically works with 1.5 phr PIL and 1 phr of ZnO resulting in improved dynamic‐mechanical properties with a minimal loss tangent value at 60 °C (tanδ=0.0689) and improved glass transition temperature (Tg=−38 °C) compared to control composite. The significant drop (~29 % lower) in tanδ could reduce fuel consumption and related CO2 emissions. We envisage that this strategy opens an essential avenue for “Green Tire Technology” towards the substantial pollution abatement from ELTs and reduces the toxic ZnO.
The extravagant growth of end‐of‐life tires (ELTs) globally poses immediate environmental and human health risks. The more thoughtful way of ELT management is pyrolysis, which permits the recovery of pyrolytic carbon black (P‐CB). Therefore, to promote ELT recycling and to reduce tire industry carbon emissions, the work described here presents a simple method to determine the possible utilization of P‐CB as a dual functional, sustainable material that could act as both filler and activator.