Patent ID: 7902391

Claim:
A rubber composition comprising: A) at least one elastomer; B) at least one filler; and C) at least one silane coupling agent for coupling the elastomer and the filler wherein the silane comprises at least one hydrolysable group that, upon compounding said silane with said elastomer and filler, is released to yield a compound that improves downstream processability of the compounded composition or the properties of the final rubber product or both, wherein said silane coupling agent is selected from the group consisting of silanes whose individual structures are represented by at least one of the following general formulae: [J-S-G 1-(SiX 2 X 3 )][— 2 —(X 2 Si-G 1 -S-J)] m -X 1 ; Formula 1: [X 1 X 2 X 3 Si-G 2 -S x -G 3 -Si(X 2 X 3 )][—Y 2 —(X 2 Si)-G 2 -S x -G 3 -(SiX 1 X 2 X 3 )] m -X 1 ; Formula 2: [X 1 X 2 X 3 Si-G 2 S x -G 3 -Si(X 2 X 3 ][—Y 2—(X 2 X 3 Si)-G 2 -S x -G 3 -(SiX 2 X 3 )] n -X 1 ; and Formula 3: [(—Y 2 —) y/2 (X 2 3-h Si)-G 1 -S-J] m [(—Y 2 —) j/2 (X 2 3-j (X 2 3-j Si)-G 2 -S x -G 3 -(SiX 2 3-k )(—Y 2 —) k/2 ] n Formula 4: wherein, in formulae 1 through 4: each occurrence of the subscript, h, is independently an integer from 1 to 3; each separate occurrence of the subscripts, j and k, is independently an integer from 0 to 3, with the proviso that j+k>0; each occurrence of the subscript, m, is independently an integer from 1 to 1000; each occurrence of the subscript, n, is independently an integer from 1 to 1000; each occurrence of the subscript, x, is independently an integer from 2 to 20; each occurrence of X I is independently selected from the group of hydrolysable moieties consisting of —Y 1 , —OH, —OR 1 , and R 1 C(═O)O—, wherein each occurrence of R 1 is independently a hydrocarbon fragment obtained by removal of one hydrogen atom from a hydrocarbon having from 1 to 20 carbon atoms; each occurrence of X 2 and X 3 is independently selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, R 1 , and X I ; each occurrence of G 1 , G 2 , and G 3 is independently selected from the group consisting of hydrocarbon fragments obtained by removal of one hydrogen atom of any of the groups listed above for R I ; each occurrence of J is independently selected from the group consisting of R 1 C(═O)—, R 1 C(═S)—, R 1 2 P(═O)—, R 1 2 P(═S)—, R 1 S(═O)—, and R 1 S(═O) 2 —, wherein each separate occurrence of R 1 is as defined above; each occurrence of Y 1 is independently —O-G-(O-G-) p OR or —O-G-(O-G-) p OH and each occurrence of Y 2 is independently —O-G-(O-G-) q O—, each occurrence of the subscript, p, is independently an integer from 1 to 100; each occurrence of the subscript, q, is independently an integer from 1 to 100; each occurrence of G is independently selected from the group consisting of hydrocarbon fragments obtained by removal of one hydrogen atom of any of the groups listed above for R 1 ; and each occurrence of R is independently selected from the group consisting of the members listed above for R 1 .