New generation carbon-silica dual phase filler - Part I. Characterization and application to passenger tire

A new carbon-silica dual phase filler (CSDPF) 4000 has been developed for passenger tire application. Analytically, this filler is featured by higher levels of silica at the surface of the aggregate and higher silanol contents compared with the CSDPF 2000 family of products introduced previously. From the compounding point of view, this new dual phase filler shows higher polymer-filler interaction on the carbon domains and lower filler-filler interaction relative to the conventional fillers used in tire tread compounds. The new filler shows significant improvement in wet skid resistance over the earlier products. When this filler is employed in passenger tire tread compounds, the tradeoff among rolling resistance, wear resistance and wet skid resistance of the tire can be significantly improved compared with conventional fillers.