Surface Activated Pyrolytic Carbon Black: A Dual Functional Sustainable Filler for Natural Rubber Composites

Abstract The significant rise in end‐of‐life tires (ELTs) globally poses immediate environmental and human health risks. Therefore, to promote ELTs recycling and to reduce tire industry carbon emissions, herein we present a facile approach for fine‐tuning the interfacial interactions between pyrolytic carbon black (P‐CB) obtained from ELTs and natural rubber (NR) matrix using phosphonium‐based ionic liquid (PIL). The reinforcing effect of PIL‐activated P‐CB was studied by replacing the furnace‐grade carbon black (N330‐CB) with varying PIL and P‐CB loadings. Adding PIL improved the filler dispersion and the cross‐linking kinetics with a substantially reduced zinc oxide (ZnO) loading. Considering the cross‐linking and viscoelastic properties, it was concluded that the composite, P‐CB/N330‐CB‐PIL (1.5)+ZnO (1) with half substitution of N330‐CB with P‐CB synergistically works with 1.5 phr PIL and 1 phr of ZnO resulting in improved dynamic‐mechanical properties with a minimal loss tangent value at 60 °C (tanδ=0.0689) and improved glass transition temperature (T g =−38 °C) compared to control composite. The significant drop (~29 % lower) in tanδ could reduce fuel consumption and related CO 2 emissions. We envisage that this strategy opens an essential avenue for “Green Tire Technology” towards the substantial pollution abatement from ELTs and reduces the toxic ZnO.