The impact of a fullerene-like concept in carbon black science Original Research Article

A discussion on the role of fullerene-like structure in carbon black has been presented. Starting from the definition of fullerene-like structure, from the experimental detection of these sites and from general properties of fullerenes, it is shown the electron affinity of fullerene-like structures in carbon black should exceed that of C60 fullerene. Therefore the fullerene-like sites in carbon black should act as free radical acceptor sites where the rubber chain macroradicals formed by chain scission or hydrogen abstraction during mixing could add in competition with other known sites, to form chemical bonds, grafting the rubber on the carbon black surface. Fullerene-like structures in carbon black play a crucial role in bound rubber formation. Techniques to increase their concentration in order to improve the carbon black reinforcing effect and to reduce the mechanical hysteresis of the rubber compound containing the modified carbon black are briefly discussed.