Enhancement of Polymer Filler Interaction in the PCR Tread Compound Based on New Generation Solution Polymerised Elastomers with Silica and Nanosilica through Irradiation Technique

Growing mobility is a mega-trend, a basic need and an important factor in economic growth, but it threatens limited fuel reserve and other resources on the earth. In vehicles, major energy produced by combustion of fossil fuel is partially converted as heat without providing any positive impact. A portion of energy produced is consumed by Engine losses, Aerodynamic drag and Rolling resistance essentially for forward motion of the vehicle. Rolling resistance is the resistive force offered by tyre when in contact with road. Tyre rolling loss is directly proportional to hysteresis loss of tyre compound.

Today fuel efficiency of tyre is considered as an important parameter and dictated by tyre designing & compounding and selection of raw materials in tyre manufacturing. Tyre industry has witnessed a lot of transitions in the search of filler & enhancing polymer-filler interaction as it holds the key to the extension of magic triangle i.e. combination of tyres performance parameters- rolling resistance, wet grip and abrasion resistance. These important parameters ensure fuel efficiency, safety in dry and wet driving conditions and tyres service life. This paper is based on the composites of S-SBR-BR with hybrid filler system of HD silica & nanosilica and enhancement of their interaction through Γ- and e-beam irradiation of the fillers. Experiments revealed that these irradiated HD silica and Nanoslica based composites have shown remarkable enhancement of polymer-filler interaction and thus results in extension of the magic triangle, enhancing physico-mechanical and dynamic performance of the tyre tread compound.