Carbon Black, Silica & Reinforcing Materials

Monolith manufactures an environmentally friendly carbon black that results in two tons less CO2 emitted for every ton of carbon black produced. This carbon black has the same physical and colloidal properties as the incumbent furnace black, a process that was developed approximately 80 years ago. Monolith carbon black is manufactured using natural gas and renewable electricity, as opposed to pyrolysis fuel oil (PFO), so the product is a cleaner, more pure form of carbon black which is either a drop-in replacement for furnace black or very close in performance in rubber compounds. This article will explain the environmental advantage and present the physical properties as well as the performance data in rubber for Monolith’s new to the market plasma carbon black.

A wide variety of rubber compositions is used in the tire industry. The base elastomers that are commonly used consist of blends of natural rubber (NR), butadiene rubber (BR) and styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR). It is apparent that the utilization of rubber without filler does not provide good properties for any application.
Therefore, filler is used to impart better properties to rubber products, with carbon black or silica used commercially. Other ingredients with different functionalities are also incorporated into rubber compounds, depending on the application; i.e., softeners, vulcanizing agents, accelerators, activators, retarders and antidegradants.