PHYSICAL ADSORPTION OF POLYMERS ON DISORDERED FILLER SURFACES

The problem of polymer adsorption on carbon black surfaces is considered within the concept of disorder-induced localization of polymer chains on disordered or fractal surfaces. The model describes how physical adsorption properties are enhanced compared to the adsorption on a flat surface. The difference is based on the configurational entropy which is less restricted in the disordered case than in the flat case. In fact, the surface of the carbon black particles is disordered over certain length scales and several experimental techniques have shown that the particle surface is fractal. This fractal nature can be quantified by the surface spectral density and the noninteger fractal surface dimension. As a main consequence, the coupling between filler and polymer is caused by entanglements formed between tightly adsorbed bound rubber on the filler surface and the bulk rubber far removed from the surface. The corresponding density of couples is estimated for several filled polymer networks using tensile test results. The stress-strain relations used are based on a new rigorous molecular-statistical model of filled polymer networks with quenched topology that includes the entanglements within the mobile rubber phase (configurational tube-model).