Patent ID: 8158725

Claim:
A method for preparing a vulcanizate, the method comprising: providing a reactive polymer including mer units deriving from the polymerization of conjugated dienes, where the reactive polymer includes a carbon anion, an oxygen anion, a sulfur anion, or a nitrogen anion; reacting the reactive polymer with carbon disulfide to form a polymer including a dithiocarbonyl group; reacting the polymer including the dithiocarbonyl group with a blocking agent to thereby provide a functionalized polymer with a residue of the blocking agent at the end of the polymer, where said step of providing a reactive polymer, said step of reacting the reactive polymer with carbon disulfide, and said step of reacting the polymer with a blocking agent takes place under inert atmosphere within solvent in which the reactive polymer, the polymer including a dithiocarbonyl group, and the functionalized polymer are at least partially soluble; isolating the functionalized polymer from the solvent; combining the functionalized polymer with filler to provide a blend; subjecting the blend to conditions sufficient to cleave the residue of the blocking agent from the functionalized polymer and thereby provide a terminal substituent on the polymer that can react with unsaturated compounds within the blend; combining the blend with a curative to form a vulcanizable composition; and subjecting the vulcanizable composition to cure conditions to thereby provide a vulcanizate.