The Influence of BIO-Based Plasticizers on the Sulfur Vulcanisation of the Tire Compounds

In last few years, the efforts to reduce the environmental footprint of tires have been intensified by moving from fossil based goods to more sustainable products based on biomass. Research completed in tire sector employing rubber derived from latex of dandelions, sustainable or bio-based fillers like pyrolysis black, rice husk or micro-cellulose and bio-based oils are still limited. Further work should be done.

The scope of this work is to study the influence of the bio-based plasticizers with different chemical structures on the crosslinking efficiency of S-SBR compound used for tires by means of Differential Scanning Calorimetry, Thermogravimetric Analysis, ATR-FT-IR-Spectroscopy, Extraction, measurement of sulfur by Conductometric Titration and Thiol-amine swelling method. It was found that fatty acid esters affect to a larger extent the vulcanization of S-SBR if compared with the triglyceride. The results were confirmed by the tests done with sulfur and raw bio-based plasticizer considering the glass transition temperature shift to higher temperatures, lower melting enthalpies, and increased intensity of the infrared signal characteristic for double bonds. An additional objective of the work was to design a new bio-based plasticizer which does not affect the vulcanization and improved the key properties of the tires.