COMPOSITION COMPRISING FUNCTIONALIZED RUBBER AND GRAPHENE, PROCESSES AND APPLICATIONS THEREOF

The present disclosure generally relates to the field of tyre technology and pertains to compositions employed for manufacturing tyre treads. More particularly, the present disclosure provides a composition comprising functionalized styrene butadiene polymer (SBR) and graphene as a reinforcing filler, and processes for preparation and applications thereof. The reinforcement of functionalized SBR with graphene filler shows homogeneous dispersion of graphene via chemical bonding with functionalized SBR, reduces particle-particle interactions of graphene filler, reduces filler-filler interaction and hence increases in filler-graphene interaction which shows the improvement in properties such as wet grip, rolling resistance, modulus, hardness and tensile properties, rheological properties etc. A tyre tread made of the present composition is superior to a tyre tread manufactured using a composition comprising traditional fillers, such as carbon black.