Characterization of carbon blacks by transmission electron microscopy and advanced image analysis

It is known that conventional analytical techniques do not allow a complete characterization of carbon blacks. In some cases in-rubber properties of c arbon blacks differ in spite of identical conventional analytical character istics. It is shown that: structural differences are revealed by transmissi on electron microscopy in conjunction with advanced image analysis techniqu es. The methods are applied to various commercial and experimental blacks o f the N 220 and N 234 class. Characteristic differences are to be seen in f ractal perimeter dimension, mass density and branch length.