Surface modification of carbon black by plasma techniques influence on the vulcanization reaction

Although vulcanization has been used since a very long time its reaction mechanism and kinetics are still not completely clarified. In this work the influence of plasma modification (O ₂, N ₂, NH ₃) of carbon black in the vulcanization reaction and kinetics using CBS as accelerator were studied both by rheometer and Model Compound vulcanization experiments. The results show that, not only the kinetics but also the reaction mechanism is altered by the introduced oxygen groups. On the other side, changes produced on the surface of carbon black by the ammonia plasma only led to faster reaction kinetics but did not change the reaction pathway. Asa consequence, final mechanical properties studied by means of tensile-strength curves were also affected and improved for nitrogen containing carbon black surfaces.