Specialty Carbons For Plastics

For many years, our broad range of specialty carbons for plastics has been used for multiple applications in the automotive, electronics, consumer goods and industrial part markets. Their unique attributes deliver significant value across color performance, dispersibility, UV protection, surface smoothness, and physical cleanliness to meet the demands of our customers.

The role of specialty carbons in plastics

Specialty carbons are produced through partial combustion of hydrocarbons to meet rigorous specifications and deliver important functionality to plastics according to end-user performance requirements. There are many types of specialty carbons typically defined by their particle size and structure. These properties of carbon black enable its unique characteristics that deliver critical value to end-users through a range of functionalities including color, UV protection and conductivity. Selecting the right specialty carbon black requires balancing a range of properties, such as color strength, dispersibility and physical cleanliness.

Read more about the numerous uses of our products in Conductive & ESD applications and review our Specialty Carbons for Plastics Application Overview.

Jetness / color strength

The morphology of the carbon black particle (particle size and structure) determines almost all relevant performance attributes of our products. For example, specialty carbon blacks with smaller particle size generally provide darker masstones, higher jetness, stronger tinting strength and better UV protection. But they tend to be more difficult to disperse than products with bigger particle size.

Dispersion / mechanical performance

Poor dispersion leads to only partial de-agglomeration of particles, causing surface defects. In contrast, excellent dispersion achieves de-agglomeration, minimizes surface defects, delivers strong color performance and minimizes deterioration of mechanical properties. Our BLACK PEARLS®, VULCAN® and ELFTEX® specialty carbon blacks exhibit favorable combinations of color strength and dispersibility.

Physical cleanliness

While dispersion is key to achieving a high level of surface smoothness, physical cleanliness, or elimination of physical contaminants within carbon blacks, is also critical to enabling high levels of surface quality and mechanical properties. The presence of physical contaminants, or ash and grit, can cause degradation of both aesthetic properties and mechanical properties. Our BLACK PEARLS® specialty carbon blacks feature high levels of cleanliness.

Our portfolio of high jetness specialty carbon blacks deliver exceptional color, high mechanical performance, and physical strength to be applied to various markets including food, molded parts, film and sheet, wire and cable, conductivity and ESD, and pipes.

Introducing Black Pearls® 1180HD Our Newest Innovation in Specialty Carbons for Plastics

Black Pearls® 1180HD Carbon Black Applications

Automotive

In automotive applications (interior, exterior, under-the-hood) higher retention of mechanical properties enabled by this carbon black allows for metal replacement and thinner wall molding, thus enabling formulators to meet lightweighting needs.

Electronics

In electrical engineering & electronics (E&E) applications, the product’s delivery of high jetness at low loadings supports needs for mechanical strength, combined with good color performance as well as needs specific to electrics & electronics, comparative tracking index, glow wire ignition temperature, flame retardancy.

Consumer

In consumer applications, the product’s high jetness characteristic enables “piano black” appearance as well as suitability for parts with needs for mechanical strength as well as chemical and heat resistance.

Industrial Parts

Black Pearls® 1180HD specialty carbon black is very well positioned to deliver excellent performance in industrial applications where a combination of high color and mechanical strength performance is needed.

Black Pearls® 1180HD

A specialty carbon black, designed for use in polar engineering and high-performance thermoplastics, offering an unprecedented combination of high color and mechanical strength performance across automotive, electronics, consumer and industrial markets.