Filler—Elastomer Interactions. Part III. Carbon-Black-Surface Energies and Interactions with Elastomer Analogs

Abstract The surface energies, both the dispersive component, γsd, and the specific component, γssp, of dry- and wet-pelletized carbon blacks, ranging from N110 to N990, were evaluated by inverse gas-solid chromatography at infinite dilution. The results indicate that the dispersive components of the surface energy of carbon blacks increase with increasing surface area. This dependence may essentially reflect an effect of microstructure on the surface energies, which can be confirmed by the relationship between the crystallographic parameters of crystallites and the graphitization of the carbon blacks. It was found that smaller crystallites characterized by a lower value of Lc lead to higher surface energy, whereas graphitization of the carbon black points toward lower surface energy, perhaps resulting from the growth of the quasi-graphite structure. Surface area dependence of the specific component of the surface energy characterized by the specific energy of adsorption of a polar probe follows the same pattern as was observed for the dispersive component, i.e., γsd increases with surface area. This is believed to be related to the crystallographic structure and the surface chemistry. Studies on adsorption energies of the low-molecular-weight analogs of elastomers generally show that the interactions between carbon blacks and rubbers depend not only on filler surface energies but also on the structure of the elastomers. Due to their polar functional groups, NBR and SBR show a stronger interaction with blacks than unsaturated rubbers. Among the rubbers simulated, IIR would have the lowest interaction with the filler. A comparison of the surface energies of carbon blacks and silicas points toward a very high γsd, for blacks which may show strong interaction with nonpolar- or low-polar polymers, while the very high Sf value of the silicas, especially precipitated silicas, a measure of the relative polarity of their surface, is considered to be representative of strong particle-particle interaction, leading to the formation of a filler network.