In the current context of green mobility and sustainability, the use of new generation natural fillers, namely, α-cellulose, has gained significant recognition. The presence of hydroxyl groups on α-cellulose has generated immense eagerness to map its potency as filler in an elastomeric composite. In the present work, α-cellulose-emulsion-grade styrene butadiene rubber (E-SBR) composite is prepared by conventional rubber processing method by using variable proportions of α-cellulose (1 to 40 phr) to assess its reinforce ability. Rheological, physical, visco-elastic and dynamic-mechanical behavior have clearly established that 10 phr loading of α-cellulose can be considered as an optimized dosage in terms of performance parameters. Morphological characterization with the aid of scanning electron microscope (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) also substantiated that composite with 10 phr loading of α-cellulose has achieved the morphological threshold. With this background, synthetic filler (silica) is substituted by green filler (α-cellulose) in an E-SBR-based composite. Characterization of the compound has clearly established the reinforcement ability of α-cellulose.

Blends of synthetic rubbers are widely used by rubber product manufacturing industries depending on the end use and product application. The estimation of individual rubber in blends is an important aspect to characterise the correctness of the mixing process. In tyre industry, Styrene butadiene rubber/Polybutadiene rubber (SBR/BR) blend is commonly used to achieve different performance properties, particularly for passenger car tyre. Out of the different quantitative analysis techniques to characterise the blend, one of the widely used techniques Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) has been used to develop and later validate a method to quantify the SBR/BR blend ratio. Through this GC-MS technique detection capability is measured, with a minimum limit of detection (LOD) of 5.17% and a limit of quantification (LOQ) of 15.67% Styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) in an SBR-BR vulcanizate. It is observed that the bias percentage is highest in case of a lower SBR content sample, i.e. 11.1% while in the case of other sets, it is varying from (–)1.4% to (+)1.5%. During the recovery study, it is observed that with increasing SBR content, recovery is also improving. All requirements for a successful method validation: Accuracy, precision, selectivity, detection capability, calibration range and robustness have been carried out in this entire work.