Response surface optimisation and curing kinetic study of NR/SBR based tyre tread formulation in the presence of Expanded clay

A zinc stearate intercalated montmorillonite,znst-mmt,was synthesised and partly replaced with carbon black in an nr/sbr based truck tyre tread formulation. the xrd results revealed that the basal spacing of the organoclay has been successfully expanded in the rubber network. a central composite design was employed to study the cis br substitution (with nr),change of oil and sulphur content on the physical properties of carbon black/znst-mmt-filled nr/sbr compounds. the response surface models for tensile strength,modulus,elongation,heat buildup (hbu),demattia cut growth (dcg),abrasion,hardness and delta torque of vulcanisates were developed and employed for optimisation through nonlinear programming algorithm framework. it was observed that the formulations with better balance of properties than reference may derive from response surface methodology (rsm) optimisation framework in the presence of znst organoclay. a kinetic study was conducted on the basis of the rheometry data. it was observed that the isayev and deng kinetic model were able to fit all experimental design points with very high accuracy.