Abstract

Cryogenic crushing techniques have been employed for recycling waste rubber articles and for extracting residual organic additives present in rubber samples. Rubber particulate derived from tire tread abrasion is one of the key components of road dust. Therefore, in this work, we prepared rubber particulates using a cryogenic crusher and character-ized their shapes as well as size distributions according to the type of rubber. The rubber particulates exhibited uneven surfaces with the presence of some small pieces. The order of the particle size distribution was observed to be: NR > BR > SBR. Sub-sequently, carbon black was added; this led to a decrease in the particle size and the shape becoming rougher. The crushed par-ticulates of the carbon black-filled samples comprised agglomerated shapes of small pieces, which were similar in shape to that of wear debris in tire tread. It was discovered that crosslink density was one of the principal factors that led to the formation of small crushed particulates. The small particulates obtained by cryogenic crushing can be utilized as model rubber particulates for researching micro dust.

Keywords: Rubber particulate;Cryogenic crush;Crosslink density;Size distribution;Model dust