Strain-Dependent Dynamic Properties of Carbon-Black Reinforced Vulcanizates. I. Individual Elastomers

Abstract

The degree of carbon—black particle aggregation (transient structure) in conventional vulcanizates varies with the nature of the elastomers. This is revealed by the variation of (Gm′−G∞ƒ′), which is a measure of the transient structure. The relationship between Gm″ and (Gm′−G∞ƒ′) as well as that between strain work and normalized modulus show similarity to earlier work in which the polymer type was not varied. This suggests that carbon-black structural elements act as energy storage units and are of the same type in all these polymers. While the decrease of in-phase modulus is primarily caused by carbon-black particle units, tan δ reflects also the effect of the polymeric matrix.