The Goodyear & Tire Rubber Company

Lei Zheng

Eric Sean Castner

Feng Anne Xie

Thierry Florent Edme Materne

Ping Zhang

John Thomas Lean

Dane Kenton Parker

Frank James Feher

Manoj Ajbani

Christopher Kiehl

This invention discloses a tire which is comprised of a generally toroidal-shaped carcass with an outer circumferential tread, two spaced beads, at least one ply extending from bead to bead and sidewalls extending radially from and connecting said tread to said beads, wherein said tread is adapted to be ground-contacting, and wherein said tread is comprised of (1) a filler, (2) a cured rubbery polymer, and (3) core-shell particles which are comprised of (a) a crosslinked elastomeric core consisting essentially of repeat units that are derived from at least one conjugated diolefin monomer and from 15 weight percent to 30 weight percent at least one crosslinking monomer, wherein the crosslinked elastomeric core is a polymeric composition having a glass transition temperature which is within the range of &#x2212;20&#xb0; C. to 20&#xb0; C., and (b) a polymeric shell which is derived from at least one vinyl aromatic monomer, wherein the polymeric shell has a glass transition temperature which is within the range of 50&#xb0; C. to 160&#xb0; C., and wherein the weight ratio of the core to the shell is within the range of 20:1 to 7:1.

Modified gel particles and rubber composition

This invention discloses a process for synthesizing a modified crosslinked elastomeric particle which comprises a two-step polymerization of a conjugated diolefin monomer and a vinyl aromatic monomer by emulsion polymerization, wherein the particle is synthesized by the steps of (1) polymerizing a conjugated diolefin monomer, alone or in combination with a vinyl aromatic monomer, and optionally a crosslinking monomer, to create a crosslinked elastomeric core having residual double bonds and an outer surface; (2) polymerizing a monomer of a vinyl aromatic monomer, alone or in combination with a diolefin monomer, to create a polymeric shell, wherein the polymeric shell is grafted to the outer surface of the polymeric core by reacting with the residual double bonds of the polymeric core; and (3) coagulating the core-shell emulsion latex solution to recover the particles.

This invention discloses a process for synthesizing a hairy polymer particle which comprises the steps of (1) polymerizing a vinyl aromatic monomer by emulsion polymerization in an aqueous medium to produce core particles, (2) recovering the core particles from the aqueous medium, (3) dispersing the core particles in an organic solvent, (4) adding an organo-lithium compound to the dried core particles in the organic solvent to produce the hairless core initiator, and (5) utilizing the hairless core initiator to initiate the anionic polymerization of a conjugated diolefin monomer in an organic solvent to produce a solution of the hairy polymer particles. The hairy polymer nanoparticles can then be recovered from the organic solvent. These hairy polymer particles are comprised of (1) a core which is comprised of a polymer of a vinyl aromatic monomer and (2) hairs which are polymer chains of a conjugated diolefin monomer, wherein the hairs are covalently bonded to the core. The core is typically spherical in shape, has a diameter of less than 1000 nm, and is comprised of a crosslinked polymer of a vinyl aromatic monomer. The hairy polymer particles of this invention are useful as fillers in rubber compositions used in making articles of manufacture, such as tires, hoses, power transmission belts, windshield wiper blades, and the like.

Hairy polymeric nanoparticles

This invention is based upon the discovered that crosslinked core-shell particles can be used as a filler in low cost emulsion styrene-butadiene rubber (ESBR) with excellent results being attained. In fact, such core-shell particle filled ESBR exhibits performance similar to silica filled solution styrene-butadiene rubber (SSBR) in terms of dynamic response, Payne effect, rebound and tan &#x3b4; at 0&#xb0; C. and 100&#xb0; C. The utilization of such crosslinked core-shell particles in rubber compounds offers the additional advantage of weight reduction since the core-shell particles are significantly less dense than carbon black or silica fillers. The use of the crosslinked core-shell polymers of this invention in rubber formulations in place of silica also offers the advantage of not needing any expensive silane coupling agents to attain required levels of polymer/filler interaction. Accordingly, no silane coupling agent is used in the rubber compounds of this invention which leads to reduced cost. Cost can be further reduced by virtue of the fact that compound mixing conditions can be substantially relaxed as compared to mixing silica containing rubber formulations. The present invention more specifically discloses A rubbery composition which is comprised of (1) an emulsion styrene-butadiene rubber, (2) carbon black, and (3) core-shell particles, wherein the core-shell particles are comprised of (a) a crosslinked elastomeric core comprised of repeat units that are derived from at least one diolefin monomer, and (b) a polymeric shell which is derived from at least one vinyl aromatic monomer.

Tire tread containing core-shell particles

This invention relates to a tread rubber composition for tires with the addition of crosslinked resinous nanoparticles having a high glass transition temperature (T) into elastomeric base polymers. The invention demonstrates greatly improved handling performance without deteriorating controllability and stability during high-speed running. The present invention more specifically discloses a tire which is comprised of a generally toroidal-shaped carcass with an outer circumferential tread, two spaced beads, at least one ply extending from bead to bead and sidewalls extending radially from and connecting said tread to said beads; wherein said tread is adapted to be ground-contacting; and wherein the tread is comprised of a rubber composition comprising: (1) a rubbery polymer; (2) from 1 to 30 parts per hundred parts of rubber by weight of pre-crosslinked polymer particles, wherein the pre-crosslinked polymer particles have a mean number average particle size as determined by light scattering which is within the range of 30 nm to 500 nm, wherein the pre-crosslinked polymer is comprised of repeat units that are derived from at least one monomer selected from the group consisting of acrylate monomers, acrylonitrile monomer, and vinyl halide monomers, wherein the pre-croslinked polymer is in the form of core-shell particles having a core and a shell, and wherein the pre-crosslinked polymer has a glass transition temperature which is within the range of 30&#xb0; C. to 200&#xb0; C.; and (3) 10 to 150 parts per hundred parts of rubber by weight of at least one filler selected from the group consisting of carbon black and silica.

Rubber composition containing resinous nanoparticle

The present invention discloses a process for producing a core-shell polymer that comprises: (1) preparing a monomer solution which is comprised of (a) at least one monomer, optional one crosslinking monomer (b) a conjugate acid of a surfactant with a pKa of less than 14, and (c) a controlled free radical polymerization agent; (2) preparing an aqueous medium which is comprised of (a) water, and (b) a conjugate base of a weak acid wherein the pKb of the base is less than 14; and (3) mixing the monomer solution with the aqueous medium under conditions that result in the in-situ formation of an emulsifier to produce a polymerization medium, and (4) initiating free radical polymerization within the polymerization medium to produce a core polymer, wherein the core contains a free radical control agents, (5) adding a second monomer to the polymerization medium containing the core polymer, and (6) allowing polymerization to proceed in the presence of the free radical control agent to produce the core-shell polymer.

Core-shell particles synthesized through controlled free radical polymerization

A thermoplastic elastomer composition comprised of (a) a thermoplastic resin selected from the group consisting of polyphenylene ether, polypropylene, polyethylene, and polystyrene, (b) a block copolymer selected from the group consisting of styrene-ethylene butylene-styrene, styrene-ethylene propylene-styrene, hydrogenated polybutadiene, hydrogenated polyisoprene, hydrogenated styrene-isoprene random copolymer, styrene-ethylene propylene block copolymer, styrene-ethylene ethylene propylene-styrene and hydrogenated styrene-butadiene random copolymers, (c) a core-shell polymer comprised of a polymeric core and a polymeric shell with the proviso that the polymeric core and/or the polymeric shell may be crosslinked, and (d) an oil.

Thermoplastic elastomer composition

This invention relates to a tread rubber composition for tires with the addition of crosslinked resinous nanoparticles having a high glass transition temperature (T) into elastomeric base polymers. The invention demonstrates greatly improved handling performance without deteriorating controllability and stability during high-speed running. The present invention discloses a rubber composition comprising: () a rubbery polymer and () from 1 to 30 parts per hundred parts of rubber by weight (phr) of pre-crosslinked polymer particles, wherein the pre-crosslinked polymer particles have a particle size which is within the range of 30 nm to 500 nm, wherein the pre-crosslinked polymer is comprised of repeat units that are derived from at least one monomer selected from the group consisting of acrylate monomers, vinyl aromatic monomers, acrylonitrile monomer, and vinyl halide monomers, and wherein the pre-crosslinked polymer has a glass transition temperature which is within the range of 30&#xb0; C. to 200&#xb0; C.

Growing community of inventors

Apex, NC, United States of America

Lei Zheng