High performance bio-based elastomers: Energy efficient and sustainable materials for tires

Globally, we are faced with a massive growth in the number of urban vehicles. This growth comes at the cost of enormous fuel consumption, CO₂ emissions and air pollution, commonly seen as a haze. With a strategy to fabricate low roll-resistance green tire elastomers from large-scale, bio-based chemicals, specifically itaconic acid, mono-alcohols and conjugated dienes, each of these problems can be reduced. By combining a molecular structural design with non-petroleum based silica and an in situ process to tune the viscoelastic properties of the elastomer composites, we have successfully manufactured silica/poly(di-n-butyl itaconate-co-butadiene) nanocomposite-based green tires that have very low roll-resistance, excellent wet skid resistance and good wear resistance, promote fuel efficiency and reduce our dependence on petrochemical resources. The results shown here open an important avenue for the synthetic rubber and automobile industry to ameliorate a major problem facing many cities worldwide, and also provide an effective route for resource sustainability.