ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 5 -- United States Patent no. 12,240,979, issued on March 4, was assigned to The University of Akron (Akron, Ohio).
"Reinforced rubber composition" was invented by Li Jia (Hudson, Ohio) and Yu Sun (Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A curable rubber composition including a rubber, a plurality of ground particles, and a reactive surfactant represented by the formula: X-Y-Z where X is a reactive group capable of forming covalent links with the rubber during compounding or vulcanization, Y is a hydrophobic linkage, and Z is a polar group capable of forming self-assemblies via intermolecular interactions, and wherein the reactive surfactant is incompatible ...