Carbon based materials for Elastomer Nanocomposites

Due to their three dimensional interconnected structure, nanocomposites containing carbon based materials have attracted a lot of interest in academic and industrial fields. The network structure gives rise to unique physical properties: low density, high specific surface area and porosity, high electrical conductivity. sp2 carbon allotropes are very efficient reinforcing fillers for elastomers and are largely used in tyre compounds. Carbon black (CB) has been used for over a century and nanofillers such as carbon nanotubes (CNT), graphene and graphene related materials (GRM) have dramatically increased their importance over the last years. It is increasingly acknowledged that to achieve substantial improvement of properties and to enlarge the span of applications, carbon materials should be functionalized. Impressive research efforts are spent in this direction. Functionalization of sp2 carbon allotropes leads to prepare carbon materials with new properties, suitable for innovative applications.