ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the interface of carbon black-filled rubber from the new interface model point of view. The reinforcement of rubbers with carbon black is definitely one of the most important subjects in rubber science and technology. The addition of carbon black greatly increases modulus, tensile strength, tear strength, fatigue resistance, and wear resistance of unfilled rubbers. These improvements are called “carbon black reinforcement” and have been widely discussed for a long time. One of the general understandings about the carbon reinforcement of rubbers, which is vaguely understood but widely accepted, is to consider such a system where well-dispersed and discontinuously connected carbon particles are strongly adhered to the matrix cross-linked rubber. In carbon black-filled rubber, it has been pointed out that there must be grand scaled sliding of molecules under large extension, resulting in large stress relaxation and creep and great stress softening and recovery of stress, called the Mullins effect.
