Patent ID: 7138537

Claim:
A composition of matter comprising at least one silane coupling agent for coupling an elastomer and a filler wherein said 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; and 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 )][—Y 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 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 1 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 any hydrocarbon fragment obtained by removal of one hydrogen atom from a hydrocarbon having from 1 to 20 carbon atoms, and R 1 includes aryl groups and any branched or straight chain alkyl, alkenyl, arenyl, or aralkyl groups; each occurrence of X 2 and X 3 is independently selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, R 1 , and X 1 ; 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 1 ; 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 .