Relationship between viscoelastic properties and characteristics of filler-gel in filled rubber system

The wide-line NMR and viscoelastic measurements were carried our for the filled rubber systems. NMR results revealed that the filler-gel in the filled rubber composites had a multi-component system depending on the mobility of rubber molecules. The fraction and the spin-spin relaxation time of each component were well correlated with the viscoelastic properties such as dynamic storage modulus (E') and loss-tangent (tan delta) of the filled rubber systems. Such findings turned out to be useful in designing new tread materials with well-balanced wet traction and rolling resistance in tires.