Using Soya Flour as an Eco-Friendly Filler to Partially Replace Carbon Black in Tire Tread Compounds

Abstract

Adapting to sustainable materials is now prevalent in many industries, including the tire industry. Several biomaterials have been utilized at various stages of tire development for their sustainability. This endeavor highlights the utilization of soy flour (SF) for partial replacement of petroleum-based carbon black (CB) in tire tread compounds. SF had an average moisture percentage of 6.74%. SF successfully replaces 10 phr of CB without major loss in physical properties. It exhibits a tensile strength of 19.59 MPa, an elongation at break of 588.43%, a 300% modulus of 5.14 MPa, a Shore A hardness of 51, a specific gravity of 1.093, and a resilience of 54%. Additionally, SF shows an abrasion value of 277.74 mm³, a tear strength of 34.36 N/mm, and an adhesion strength of 7.60 N/mm. Further, SF displayed properties comparable to the control with a silane coupling agent, and calcium sulfate dihydrate (CSD). However, SF with CSD led to a higher abrasion loss (approximately 60% improvement over the control), which indicated a less favorable interaction between SF and NR. Despite this difference, all formulations demonstrated acceptable performance in aging and blooming tests. Therefore, it can be clearly concluded that SF together with a silane coupling agent could easily replace 10 phr of CB, serving as sustainable filler in the tire manufacturing industry.
Keywords: Eco-friendly, Filler, Tire tread, Soya flour, Carbon black