Blends of Natural Rubber and Butadiene Rubber-Distribution Quantification of Carbon Black Filler

The present study deals with the distribution of N330 carbon black in cured 50/50 blend of natural rubber (NR) and butadiene rubber (BR). The results were reported in terms of tan δ and glass transition temperature (T_g). The reduced tan δ peaks in the BR phase with the increased filler loading and the corresponding shift in T_g of BR towards the positive side have shown that there was a preferential migration of carbon black towards the BR phase. Carbon black dispergrader was used to determine the dispersion of the filler on a series of blends with varying BR content. A theoretical evaluation on determining the preference of N330 has also been performed using Wu’s equation. The evaluation was well correlated with the result obtained from analytical data. It has been inferred that the N330 has migrated more towards the BR phase.