Application of environmentally friendly potassium oleate modified wollastonite in carbon black/natural rubber composites

Abstract

AbstractCarbon black uses nonrenewable resources (e.g., petroleum and natural gas) as raw materials, which not only causes dust pollution, but also has poor wet traction and high‐heat generation of rubber. Wollastonite is a polar filler, it requires surface modification to improve its hydrophobicity. In this paper, potassium oleate was introduced as an environment‐friendly modifier to decrease the polarity of the wollastonite, and a series of properties of the rubber composites with modified wollastonite replacing different parts of carbon black were studied. The experimental results show that the interfacial contact angle of the modified wollastonite changes from 0° to 51°, resulting in a weaker polarity. When 10 phr PO‐modified wollastonite were used to replace 10 phr carbon black filled with natural rubber, the processing safety is better, the Payne effect is effectively weakened and the rolling resistance is reduced, the tensile product reached 15573.98, which was 12.95% higher than that of the composites filled with full carbon black, resulting in the best comprehensive properties. This study verified the feasibility of replacing part of carbon black with potassium oleate modified wollastonite to prepare “green tire,” reduce the consumption of fossil energy, promote sustainable development, and provide reference for actual industrial production.