Complete replacement of carbon black filler in rubber sole with CaO embedded activated carbon derived from tannery solid waste

Rubber compounding, a vital research area in the automotive and other consumer products market, involves manufacturing of quality rubber compounds. Conventionally, carbon black, a potential carcinogen is used as filler in this process. This study is aimed to reduce the impact of this pollution load by replacing with eco-friendly filler derived from tannery solid waste. Limed fleshing, a major solid waste from tannery industry is used as a source to prepare activated carbon. Limed fleshing was pre-processed and pyrolyzed (800 degrees C) to prepare Calcium Oxide embedded Activated Carbon (CaO-AC). The CaO formed, owing to the presence of lime (Ca(OH)(2)) in limed fleshing, acts as a crosslinking agent thus improving the vulcanization process. CaO-AC was structurally and morphologically characterized using XRD, SEM, BET analysis and EDS. The physical properties of rubber soles with CaO-AC as filler, viz., density (1.19 g/cc), tensile strength (9.0 N/mm(2)), elongation at break (398%) are similar to that of the rubber soles made using carbon black as filler. Also, the flexing resistance of CaO-AC (0.007 mm/kc) has been found to be better than carbon black filler, whereas the abrasion resistance (173%) is slightly higher than carbon black filler. Thus, this approach apart from reducing the pollution load also paves way to upgrade the quality of existing products. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.