Patent ID: 8597790

Claim:
A method for making a vulcanizable rubber composition comprising mixing: (a) an elastomer containing unsaturated carbon-carbon bonds in its molecular structure; (b) a reinforcing inorganic filler, carbon black, or a mixture of the inorganic filler with carbon black; (c) a coupling agent comprising an alkoxysilane moiety that binds to the inorganic filler and a non-sulfur moiety that reacts with the unsaturated carbon-carbon bonds of the elastomer to bind the coupling agent to the elastomer; (d) an alkyl alkoxysilane, wherein the weight ratio of the coupling agent to the alkyl alkoxysilane is about 0.0001:1 to about 1:1; and (e) a cure agent; wherein the non-sulfur moiety that reacts with the unsaturated carbon-carbon bonds of the elastomer to bind the coupling agent to the elastomer is: (i) —N(C═O) 2 N═N, (ii) —N(C═O) 2 CH═CR 1 , (iii) —NH(C═O)N═N(C═O)OR 1 , (iv) —(C═O)N═N(C═O)OR 1 ; and (v) —O(C═O)N═N(C═O)OR 1 ; and mixtures thereof; wherein R 1 is C 1 to C 4 alkyl.