Polymer-oil-black masterbatch

Claim 1

A process for the manufacture of an improved masterbatch of synthetic rubber, oil and carbon black wherein a latex of a synthetic C 4 -C 8 conjugated diolefin polymer containing from 0.2 to about 2.5 weight percent of copolymerized monomer containing reactive groups selected from one of tertiary amine, hydroxyl and aldehyde, is mixed with an aqueous slurry containing from about 50 parts to about 250 parts by weight per 100 parts by weight of polymer of carbon black and with a stream containing from about 50 parts to about 150 parts by weight per 100 parts by weight of polymer of oil, the mixture is fed to a coagulation vessel and contacted therein with aqueous acidic coagulation agent, the water wet coagulated polymer-oil-black mixture is separated and dried in a drying means to yield the improved masterbatch, the improvement being the addition to and mixing with the polymer in one of the coagulation vessel or the drying means of a crosslinking agent reactive with the reactive groups of the polymer in sufficient amount to react therewith and cause an improvement in the strength and non-flow characteristics of the polymer, said crosslinking agent containing (a) reactive halogen groups when the reactive groups of the polymer are tertiary amine, or (b) aldehyde groups activated by adjacent carbonyl or methoxy groups when the reactive groups of the polymer are hydroxyl, or (c) hydroxy or mercaptan groups when the reactive groups of the polymer are aldehyde.