Effect of carbon black and thermal aging on the conduction mechanism of natural and styrene butadiene rubbers

Two types of carbon black namely fast extrusion furnace black (FEF) and high abrasion furnace black (HAF) were incorporated with a concentration of 50 phr into styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) and natural rubber (NR). The effect of the time of aging and temperature on the electrical conductivity was studied. It was found that a thermal aging at 95°C leads to the appearance of minimum in conductivity (σ) in both FEF/NR and HAF/NR. This was explained by a competition between two factors: degradation and increase of crosslinking density in the rubber matrix. In case of FEF/SBR and HAF/SBR it seems that these factors have comparable effects on the conductivity after 10 days of aging. From the current‐voltage (I‐V) characteristics the carrier concentration, trap density, and the drift mobility were calculated. The minimum found in the temperature dependence of σ for FEF/NR is discussed and found to be controlled by the relative dimension of carbon and rubber aggregates.