Chemically Modified Precipitated Silica: Eliminates Production Drawbacks and Enhances Fuel Efficiency, Safety and Environmental Performance

Rising fuel costs, a wide range of national and international legislation, and increased public perception continue to encourage the automotive industry to pursue increasingly environmentally friendly passenger car tires with improved fuel efficiency and safety.  Tire manufacturers currently try to use highly dispersible silica in combination with specific silane coupling agent(s) and polymer(s) to meet these needs.  However, it is well documented that this current conventional technology has a variety of production and performance limitations.  This paper discusses how appropriate chemical modification results in a new performance silica technology platform which overcomes these limitations.  Results will be presented based on model passenger tread compounding work using Agilon™ 400, a recently introduced specific tire grade from this new performance silica technology platform.  These results will demonstrate the ability to significantly reduce rolling resistance and increase traction.  The ability of Agilon™ 400 to eliminate the need for a silane coupling agent, increase mixing efficiency and reduce volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions will also be shown.  These improvements support the tire industry’s need to further increase vehicle fuel efficiency and safety and reduce greenhouse gas emissions while also improving their production efficiencies.