Overview of Uses

Traditionally, carbon black has been used as a reinforcing agent in tires. Today,
because of its unique properties, the uses of carbon black have expanded to include
pigmentation, ultraviolet (UV) stabilization and conductive agents in a variety of
everyday and specialty high performance products, including:
Tires and Industrial Rubber Products: Carbon black is added to rubber as both a
filler and as a strengthening or reinforcing agent. For various types of tires, it is used in
innerliners, carcasses, sidewalls and treads utilizing different types based on specific
performance requirements. Carbon black is also used in many molded and extruded
industrial rubber products, such as belts, hoses, gaskets, diaphragms, vibration isolation
devices, bushings, air springs, chassis bumpers, and multiple types of pads, boots, wiper
blades, fascia, conveyor wheels, and grommets.
Plastics: Carbon blacks are now widely used for conductive packaging, films, fibers,
moldings, pipes and semi-conductive cable compounds in products such as refuse sacks,
industrial bags, photographic containers, agriculture mulch film, stretch wrap, and
thermoplastic molding applications for automotive, electrical/electronics, household
appliances and blow-molded containers.
Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) Compounds: Carbon blacks are carefully designed to
transform electrical characteristics from insulating to conductive in products such as
electronics packaging, safety applications, and automotive parts.
High Performance Coatings: Carbon blacks provide pigmentation, conductivity, and
UV protection for a number of coating applications including automotive (primer
basecoats and clearcoats), marine, aerospace, decorative, wood, and industrial coatings.
Toners and Printing Inks: Carbon blacks enhance formulations and deliver broad
flexibility in meeting specific color requirements.


Carbon black
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the climate forcing agent, see Black carbon.
Carbon black (subtypes are acetylene black, channel black, furnace black, lamp
black and thermal black) is a material produced by the incomplete combustion of
heavypetroleum products such as FCC tar, coal tar, ethylene cracking tar, and a small amount
from vegetable oil. Carbon black is a form of paracrystalline carbon that has a highsurface-area-to-
volume ratio, albeit lower than that of activated carbon. It is dissimilar to soot in its much higher
surface-area-to-volume ratio and significantly lower (negligible and non-bioavailable) PAH (polycyclic
aromatic hydrocarbon) content. However, carbon black is widely used as a model compound for
diesel soot for diesel oxidation experiments.
[1]
Carbon black is mainly used as a reinforcing filler in
tires and other rubber products. In plastics, paints, and inks carbon black is used as a
color pigment.
[2]

The current International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) evaluation is that, "Carbon black is
possibly carcinogenic to humans (Group 2B)".
[3]
Short-term exposure to high concentrations of
carbon black dust may produce discomfort to the upper respiratory tract, through mechanical
irritation.
Contents
[hide]
1 Common uses
2 Reinforcing carbon blacks
3 Pigment
4 Surface chemistry
5 Carcinogenicity studies
6 See also
7 References
8 External links
Common uses[edit]


A small mound of carbon black.
Total production was around 8,100,000 metric tons (8,900,000 short tons) in 2006.
[4]
The most
common use (70%) of carbon black is as a pigment and reinforcing phase in automobile tires.
Carbon black also helps conduct heat away from the tread and belt area of the tire, reducing thermal
damage and increasing tire life. Carbon black particles are also employed in some radar absorbent
materials and in photocopier and laser printer toner, and other inks and paints. The high tinting
strength and stability of carbon black has also provided use in coloring of resins and films.
[5]
About
20% of world production goes into belts, hoses, and other non-tire rubber goods. The balance is
mainly used as a pigment in inks, coatings and plastics. For example, it is added
to polypropylene because it absorbs ultraviolet radiation, which otherwise causes the material to
degrade.
Carbon black from vegetable origin is used as a food coloring, in Europe known as additive E152. It
is approved for use as additive153(Carbon blacks or Vegetable carbon)
[6]
in Australia and New
Zealand
[6]
but has been banned in the USA.
[7]

Carbon black has been used in various applications for electronics. As a good conductor of
electricity, carbon black is used as a filler mixed in plastics, elastomer, films, adhesives, and
paints.
[5]
Application of carbon black as an antistatic agent has provided uses as an additive for fuel
caps and pipes for automobiles.
Additionally, the color pigment Carbon Black has been widely used in food and beverage packaging
around the world for many years. It is used in multi-layer UHT milk bottles in the US, parts of Europe
and Asia, and South Africa, and in items like microwavable meal trays and meat trays in New
Zealand.
Within Australasia the safe use of the colour pigment Carbon Black in packaging must comply with
the requirements of either the EU or US packaging regulations and if any colourant is used it must
meet European partial agreement AP(89)1.
[8]

The Canadian Governments assessment (an extensive review of Carbon Black) in 2011 concluded
that Carbon Black should continue to be used in products including food packaging for consumers
in Canada. This was because in most consumer products carbon black is bound in a matrix and
unavailable for exposure, for example as a pigment in plastics and rubbers and it is proposed that
Carbon Black is not entering the environment in a quantity or concentrations or under conditions that
constitute or may constitute a danger in Canada to human life or health.
[9]

There are strict guidelines available and in place to ensure employees who manufacture Carbon
Black are not in a working environment where they are at risk of inhaling unsafe doses of Carbon
Black in its raw form.
[10]

Reinforcing carbon blacks[edit]
The highest volume use of carbon black is as a reinforcing filler in rubber products, especially tires.
While a pure gum vulcanizate of styrene-butadiene has a tensile strength of no more than 2.5 MPa,
and almost nonexistent abrasion resistance, compounding it with 50% of its weight of carbon black
improves its tensile strength and wear resistance as shown in the below table. It is used often in the
Aerospace industry in elastomers for aircraft vibration control components such as engine mounts.
Types of carbon black used in tires
Name Abbrev.
ASTM
desig.
Particle
Size
nm
Tensile
strength
MPa
Relative
laboratory
abrasion
Relative
roadwear
abrasion
Super Abrasion Furnace SAF N110 2025 25.2 1.35 1.25
Intermediate SAF ISAF N220 2433 23.1 1.25 1.15
High Abrasion Furnace HAF N330 2836 22.4 1.00 1.00
Easy Processing Channel EPC N300 3035 21.7 0.80 0.90
Fast Extruding Furnace FEF N550 3955 18.2 0.64 0.72
High Modulus Furnace HMF N683 4973 16.1 0.56 0.66
Semi-Reinforcing Furnace SRF N770 7096 14.7 0.48 0.60
Fine Thermal FT N880 180200 12.6 0.22 --
Medium Thermal MT N990 250350 9.8 0.18 --
Practically all rubber products where tensile and abrasion wear properties are crucial use carbon
black, so they are black in color. Where physical properties are important but colors other than black
are desired, such as white tennis shoes, precipitated or fumed silica has been used as a substitute
for carbon black in reinforcing ability. Silica-based fillers are also gaining market share in automotive
tires because they provide better trade-off for fuel efficiency and wet handling due to a lower rolling
loss compared to carbon black-filled tires. Traditionally silica fillers had worse abrasion wear
properties, but the technology has gradually improved to where they can match carbon black
abrasion performance.
Pigment[edit]
Carbon black (Colour Index International, PBK-7) is the name of a common black pigment,
traditionally produced from charring organic materials such as wood or bone. It appears black
because it reflects very little light in the visible part of the spectrum, with an albedo near zero. The
actual albedo varies depending on the source material and method of production. It is known by a
variety of names, each of which reflects a traditional method for producing carbon black:
Ivory black was traditionally produced by charring ivory or bones (see bone char).
Vine black was traditionally produced by charring desiccated grape vines and stems.
Lamp black was traditionally produced by collecting soot, also known as lampblack, from oil
lamps.
Newer methods of producing carbon black have superseded these traditional sources, although
some materials are still produced using traditional methods. For artisanalpurposes, carbon black
produced by any means remains a commonly used item.
[5]

Surface chemistry[edit]
All carbon blacks have chemisorbed oxygen complexes (i.e., carboxylic, quinonic,
lactonic, phenolic groups and others) on their surfaces to varying degrees depending on the
conditions of manufacture. These surface oxygen groups are collectively referred to as volatile
content. It is also known to be a non-conductive material due to its volatile content.
The coatings and inks industries prefer grades of carbon black that are acid oxidized. Acid is
sprayed in high temperature dryers during the manufacturing process to change the inherent surface
chemistry of the black. The amount of chemically-bonded oxygen on the surface area of the black is
increased to enhance performance characteristics.
Carcinogenicity studies[edit]
Carbon black is considered possibly carcinogenic to humans and classified as a Group 2B
carcinogen, because there is sufficient evidence in experimental animals with inadequate evidence
in human epidemiologic studies.
[3]
The body of evidence of carcinogenicity in animal studies comes
from two chronic inhalation studies and two intratracheal instillation studies in rats, which showed
significantly elevated rates of lung cancer in exposed animals.
[3]
An inhalation study was tested on
mice, but did not show significantly elevated rates of lung cancer in exposed
animals.
[3]
Epidemiologic data comes from three different cohort studies of carbon black production
workers. Two studies, from the United Kingdom and Germany, with over 1,000 workers in each
study group, showed elevated mortality from lung cancer in the carbon black workers.
[3]
Another
study of over 5,000 workers in the United States did not show elevated mortality from lung cancer in
the carbon black workers.
[3]
Newer findings of increased lung cancer mortality in an update from the
UK study may suggest that carbon black could be a late-stage carcinogen.
[11][12]
However, a more
recent and larger study from Germany did not confirm this hypothesis that carbon black acts as a
late-stage carcinogen.
[13]

In order to properly protect workers from inhalation of carbon black, respiratory personal protective
equipment is recommended. The type of respiratory protection varies, depending on the
concentration of carbon black used.
[14]