ETE is a regular guest at the American Chemical Society Rubber Division conference, which is held annually in October in the US. This year, ETE again presented a part of the research work on silica as a reinforcing filler in natural rubber. This composite is still a challenge in terms of processing and final properties, but worth looking at it as it has the potential to reduce fuel consumption of road freight considerably. At this occasion, an award is given for the best presentation at the conference of the year before. This year, Prof. Anke Blume achieved this award for her presentation of last year on ‘INFLUENCE OF NETWORK STRUCTURE ON ELASTOMER PROPERTIES’. The presentation was based on the practical work in the ETE labs by a guest researcher, Katarzyna Bandzierz, from the University of Lodz.
Another outcome of this conference is the invitation to co-organize next years’ conference, which will have the focus on ‘sustainability’. Most of the work within ETE and SES (Sustainable Elastomer Systems) is related to sustainability, therefore, ETE and SES can deliver a valuable contribution to this topic covering the variety of challenges and latest research results.
