Utilization of powdered natural rubber vulcanizate as a filler

摘要

Waste rubber disposal remains a threat to society although several approaches to recycling have been practiced from very early days (refs. 1 and 2). Utilization of powdered waste rubber in fresh polymer compounds seems to be an effective approach since it is environmentaly friendly (refs. 3-5). But the commonly used powdering methods like ambient grinding and cryogenic grinding provide coarser rubber particles which raise tress concentrations in the polymer matrix (refs. 6 and 7). Furthermore, the smooth particle surface obtained by the cryogenic grinding results in poor adhesion between the matrix and the rubber particles, which in turn necessitates expensive modification steps such as surface functionalization and devulcanization (refs. 8-10).