Open spaces and molecular motions in carbon‐black‐ and silica‐loaded SBR investigated using positron annihilation

Lifetime spectra of positrons were measured for styrene–butadiene rubber (SBR) vulcanizates filled with carbon black (CB) or silica. At temperatures between 10 and 420 K, no large difference between the size of the open spaces in the CB/SBR vulcanizate and that in the specimen without the filler was observed. Above the glass‐transition temperature (T_g = 230 K), the same was true for the silica/SBR vulcanizate. Below T_g, however, the size of the open spaces was reduced by the incorporation of silica as a result of the suppression of local molecular motions in the SBR. The density of the open spaces was reduced by the incorporation of the fillers. However, above 400 K it started to increase in the silica/SBR vulcanizate. For the CB/SBR vulcanizate, the introduction of open spaces was well suppressed, even at 420 K. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci B: Polym Phys 39: 835–842, 2001