With the development of automobile industry, the production amount of China tires has been on the top of the world. But there is still a big gap compared with the developed tire manufactures. The market share of high-end tires is almost completely occupied by foreign manufacturers. With the implement of technical regulation for energy-saving and safety tires of Europe and America tire manufacturers and the legislation of tire labelling law, the most important performance of tires such as rolling resistance, wet-skip resistance and noise are strictly rated, which will be labelled on the surface of tire and will be taken as a guide for tire buyer and technical threshold for domestic tire manufacturers for tire export. The important tire performances of green tire are mainly related with the properties for tire tread. The properties for tire tread are determined by three aspects: (1) the structure of matrix rubber, including chemical structure, chain structure, molecular weight and its distribution, and crosslink structure; (2) the interaction between rubber and nano-filler, including interaction tensity and interaction type (physical or chemical); (3) the iteraction between nano-fillers. These three aspects interact with each other and a nano-composite with multilevel, multiscale sturcture is formed. The main rubber materials used in green tires are solution polymerized styrene butadiene rubber (SSBR) and rare earth (neodymium) catalyzed polybutadiene(NdBR) and epoxidized natural rubber (ENR). For SSBR, the most researchers have focused on SSBR with high vinyl content. The existence of vinyl group improves the interaction between rubber and filler (especially for silica), which increases the wet-skip resistance and decreases the rolling resistance. Chain end coupling and in-chain or end chain functionalization are other routes for SSBR modification which reduce the free chain end amount and much more perfect networks are formed, which reduce rolling resistance and heat generation. Tin-coupling and silicon coupling are mainly used for carbon black and silica filler tire tread, respectively. The introductions of reactive groups (such as amino, isocyanato, etc) and bulky groups link or inactivate the chain end and decrease the dynamic hysteresis and heat generation. High molecular weight and narrow distribution can also be contolled to improve SSBR's property. Integral rubber (SIBR) is developed to integrated the advantages of BR, NR and SBR. NdBR with high cis-1,4-structure has better performance such as higher abrasion resistance, lower rolling resiatance, better flex crack resistance and better handle performance when used in tire tread and tire sidewall, even in cord fabric of tire. NdBR with long branch has solved the contradiction between processing and properties. As a modification of NR, ENR improves the interaction between silica and ENR, which improves the dispersion of silica in rubber matrix, decreases the rolling resistance, and increases the wet-skip resistance of tire tread. Other raw materials used in green tire manufactures such as accelerator, reinforcment agent, anti-ageing agent are also developed for environmetal protection to meet the requirement of REACH regulation. Aromatic oil is forbidden in REACH regulation due to its poly-aromatic content (PAC). A modified rosin resin Sylvatraxx can balance the rolling resistance and wet-skip reisitance of tire tread by adjusting the viscoelasticity of rubber. Generally speaking, the implement of worldwide environmetal protection regulation and tire label law supply a potential development opportunity for new materials with high performance, which will promote the technical progress and sound development of China tire industry. © 2016, Science Press. All right reserved.
