While a ubiquitous object in life, the composition and construction of a tire is highly complex and requires scientists to use a variety of instrumentation to characterize the organic and inorganic components from the human to atomic length scales.  Through advances in microscopy, the ability to correlate physical properties, both bulk and local, as well as elemental composition in a given construction allows for continued tire improvement.  Advances in technology over the past few decades has shifted the major constraint of characterization from what is possible to what is feasible with the restraints of time, sample preparation, and length scale.  Instrumentation that probes mechanical properties, such as Nanoindentation and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), provide local modulus information that can be influenced not only by the polymer matrix but also inorganic filler concentration and morphology.  In addition, recent advancements in AFM technology has provided access to chemical functionality information at the sub-micron length scale through a number of techniques including photothermal induced resonance (AFM-PTIR).  However, these techniques can be restrictive due to sample preparation needs as well as length scale limitations.  Beam microscopy techniques, such as scanning electron and scanning transmission electron, can yield useful information on inorganic components as well as chemical functionalities over a wide range of length scales but can still be impacted by varying sample preparation requirements.   While powerful, many of the previous techniques lack ready access to three dimensional space, which can be useful for understanding the distribution of filler throughout a compound.  For this information, X-ray computed tomography (CT) can be utilized, providing a non-destructive method to visualize the entire volume of a polymer composite.  While CT provides greater spatial information, it is only a partial tool due to limitations in both length scale and compositional analysis.  While no single method provides full characterization, the combination of techniques can provide a more complete understanding of the inorganic filler and its influence in a tire allowing scientists to drive improvement now and in the future. <br/>

Some current microscopy techniques used for characterization of inorganic fillers in tire compounds

251st National Meeting (2016)

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