The Institute of Synthetic Rubber’s presentation at ‘Rubber Industry. Raw materials, materials, technologies 2016’, the XXI International scientific-practical conference covers recent achievements in the synthetic rubbers field. Modern scientists are faced with the ongoing problem of the exhaustion of monomers and catalyst systems bases. The rubber industry has a requirement for polymeric materials with significantly improved performance characteristics, such as wear resistance, thermal stability, oil and petrol resistance, electrical conductivity and other properties. Leading experts from the Institute of Synthetic Rubber believe that the use of nanostructured materials in polymer science, through introducing single wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) into rubber materials’ matrix, will facilitate the production of the materials of the future, without significant financial investment.
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SWCNTs increase the strength of rubber whilst maintaining flexibility and in some cases, improve other important properties such as hardness, cohesive strength, dynamic fatigue strength and abrasion resistance. In addition, SWCNTs decrease hysteresis losses and strengthen wet grip for rubbers used in tyre manufacturing. However, up until recently, nanotubes were not widely adopted due to the lack of an industrial-scale synthesis method, problems with applying them to the material matrix without changing technology and process, as well as the high costs. OCSiAl, the world’s largest manufacturer of the unique high-quality product TUBALL™, which contains more than 75% of SWCNT, offers advanced additives TUBALL RUBBER and TUBALL LATEX – ready-to-use cost-effective solutions for the rubber industry. These pioneering products enable manufacturers to produce polymers with excellent properties without changing manufacturing processes substantially. At the conference, the Institute of Synthetic Rubber shared the latest research results of a joint initiative with OCSiAl centred on modifying polymers at the synthesis stage.
The conference’s agenda included the latest developments in materials and rubbers, technologies and equipment for tyres and rubber goods production, instruments and test methods. In 2015, more than 80 leading academic and commercial organizations from Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Germany, Italy, Poland and Estonia took part.