Doublestar Group Co., Ltd., Qingdao 266400, China
*College of Chemical and Biological
Technology, Taiyuan University of Science and Technology, Taiyuan 030021, China
Various additives have been
applied to adjust the properties of rubber in the tire industry. As an
important environmental waste, plastic is a potential additive to be added to
rubber to blend aiming at forming abrasive and deformation resistance
elastomers. However, the molecular details remain unclear, especially for their
assembly structure. Using all-atom molecular dynamics simulations, we have
studied the assembly structures and processes of polyisoprene and polystyrene
complex, focusing on the spatial complementary behavior. The simulation results
indicate that polyisoprene and polystyrene can form tight entangled structure.
The polyisoprene can adjust their conformations to fill up the cavity generated
from polystyrene self-aggregation. The formed cross-linked and spatial
polystyrene complementary structures can improve the plasticity and abrasive
resistance, which is superiority in tire design. Our results provide an
important understanding of the rubber application and tire industry and give a
possible idea to deal with abandoned plastics.
Keywords: tire industry, polyisoprene-polystyrene composites, assembly structure, spatial complementary behavior
2020; 44(6): 835-840
Published online Nov 25, 2020
*College of Chemical and Biological Technology, Taiyuan University of Science and Technology, Taiyuan 030021, China