High-Performance Raven 5100 Ultra Piano Black for Automotive Applications

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Introduction

In the recent two-blog series titled “Extracting Value from Carbon Black to Meet High Jetness Demands”, we talked about fundamental properties of high color blacks, key factors affecting the color performance, compounding equipment and process, and Birla Carbon’s offerings along with some recommendations. In this blog, we will narrow down the focus to a new-generation piano black: Raven 5100 Ultra.

Benefits for Compounders and OEMs

Carbon black is well recognized as a cost-effective and non-consumable additive to impart UV durability for plastics. The new-generation Raven 5100 Ultra piano black delivers ultimate high jetness and optimum UV performance. This means that the Raven 5100 Ultra piano black can eliminate the need for an additional UV package when an organic dye is used. This can reduce formulation cost by 15% or more compared with traditional organic dye solutions. Thanks to its unparallel jetness performance, the Raven 5100 Ultra piano black can help compounders become a leading player in these emerging applications, securing a unique position with premium masterbatch products, e.g., premiums up to likely 25% compared to the top high color solutions.

For OEMs, the new-generation piano black solution can fit in a mold-in-color process and ultimately eliminate the coating process, which translates into significant cost savings. In addition, the resin’s mass coloration route dramatically reduces the CO2 footprint and the amount of VoC emission compared to the coating process.

Background

Aesthetic appearance is important for high value plastics applications. For example, it is mostly appealing to have a surface finish with high gloss, deep jetness and blue tone for automotive interior and exterior components, consumer electronics and household appliances. There is an emerging trend for a mold-in-color process to replace high end coatings for automotive applications, as the mold-in-color process is more efficient and less costly. Birla Carbon’s high color blacks demonstrate high jetness performance for a variety of high value applications, and the new generation piano black offers ultra-high jetness for those applications.

Typical Properties

The Raven 5100 Ultra piano black is meticulously engineered to have a unique morphology, balanced surface area and structure, and high cleanliness. It has an average particle size of ~ 7 nm, one of the finest particle sizes in the industry. Figure 1 illustrates its TEM micrograph showing multiple primary particles with para-crystalline morphology, that are fused into an aggregate. Table 1 summarizes typical properties of the Raven 5100 Ultra piano black with a much higher surface area than the other two high color black examples.

Figure 1: TEM Micrograph of Raven 5100 Ultra Piano Black

Table 1: Typical Properties of Raven 5100 Ultra Piano Black and High Color Blacks

Good Dispersibility

Color development starts with a compounding process, which de-agglomerates carbon black and uniformly distributes carbon black aggregates to form a homogeneous compound system. This is typically achieved with processes delivering high shear and extensional stress fields, for example, twin-screw extrusion, Farrel continuous mixing or others.   

Even with very high surface area, which usually poses a dispersion difficulty due to increased van der Waals forces among carbon black aggregates, Raven 5100 Ultra piano black shows good dispersibility in a variety of engineering resins including polyamides, polycarbonate, and poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) via a conventional compounding process as illustrated in Figure 2. It should be emphasized that highly dispersed carbon black is essential to achieving the optimum color performance.

Figure 2: TEM micrograph of high color black 1 and Raven 5100 Ultra piano black showing good dispersion in polycarbonate resin ( 1% carbon black loading)

Performance Advantages           

Due to its higher surface area and good dispersibility, the Raven 5100 Ultra piano black delivers ~15-20% higher jetness than other high color carbon blacks in both polycarbonate and polypropylene resin systems showing similar blue tone as illustrated in Figure 3. It is worth mentioning that Raven 5100 Ultra piano black also exhibits high-gloss surface finish, making it an attractive solution to automotive interiors or functional parts for which appealing deep jetness and glossy surface finish are critical.

Conclusions

The new-generation Raven 5100 Ultra piano black possesses one of the smallest particle sizes in the carbon black industry for ultimate color performance. It can be adequately dispersed in varieties of resins including polyamides, polycarbonates, polypropylene and others via conventional compounding processes. It exhibits unparalleled jetness, and appealing blue tone and surface finish. Therefore, the new-generation Raven 5100 Ultra piano black solution is expected to replace high-end coatings and painting surfaces for automotive applications driven by sustainability and overall cost-saving targets.

We look forward to working with you and discovering solutions with Raven 5100 Ultra piano black for your unique applications.

This article is based on a presentation given at SPE TPO 2024 Automotive conference.  Dr. Zhaokang Hu, Principal Scientist, R&D, Birla Carbon, has contributed to this presentation.