Structure Analyses of Swollen Rubber-carbon Black Systems by Contrast Variation SANS

Abstract

The polymer layers adsorbed on carbon black (CB) aggregates in rubber/CB systems have been investigated with contrast variation small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) method. Specimens were swollen by toluene/deuterated toluene solvents having various scattering length densities and their scattering intensities were measured with SANS. The contrast variation SANS for the specimens yielded partial scattering functions: the scattering function for polymer-polymer correlation S_pp(q), the scattering function for CB- CB correlation S_cc(q), and the scattering function for polymer- CB correlation S_pc(q). The analyses of the partial scattering functions explored the existence of dense polymer layers around CB aggregates. Several characteristic parameters are estimated from the analyses, such as the size of aggregates, the thickness of layers, and the volume fractions of polymer of layers and matrix.