Reutilization of industrial ultrafine carbon ash (PM2.5) as rubber reinforcement filler

Carbon ash is the residue generated from the process of recycling steel by high temperature carbonization of polymers on the surface of scrap metals including coatings, paints, and other organic-impurities. Carbon ash with a small particle size can produce haze and harms to human health. In this work, the effects of carbon ash as rubber reinforcement filler on the properties of styrene-butadiene rubber are investigated. The tensile strength and stress at 100% and 300% are improved with 40 phr of carbon ash, and the tensile strength of the styrene-butadiene rubber reaches 12.13 MPa. Storage modulus and glass transition temperature of rubber compounds are found to increase, whereas the peak values of dynamic loss tangent decrease with increasing carbon ash concentrations. Furthermore, the dielectric constant and electromagnetic shielding effectiveness increase to about 9.0 and 8.0 dB, respectively. This reutilization process is expected to have commercial impact and reduce environmental pollution. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 35: 1132–1138, 2016.