Reinforcement of elastomers

The review describes recent research about reinforcement in elastomers where the main intention is to gain insight into the relationship between disordered filler structure on different length scales and reinforcement and to microscopic mechanisms of strain enhancement. Several theoretical concepts will be discussed together with very recent experimental findings related to hydrodynamic reinforcement, rigid filler aggregates with fractal structure and polymer adsorption on heterogeneous filler surfaces. Based on the new concepts, we present several recent efforts to understand typical effects in filled rubbers that have an extraordinary practical importance (for example, stress softening of carbon black filled rubbers during repeated large strain stretching and during small strain dynamic excitations). (C) 2002 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.