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Pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS) was used to examine the reaction rate of bis(triethoxysilylpropyl)tetrasulphide in silica-filled rubber. The major pyrolysis product of bis(triethoxysilylpropyl)tetrasulphide, which is used as a silane coupling agent, was found to be an allyltriethoxysilane. Allyltriethoxysilane was also detected in the uncured silica-filled styrenebutadiene rubber compound with bis(triethoxysilylpropyl)tetrasulphide. To investigate the silica/silane reaction rate, the allytriethoxysilane content was used as an indicator and quantified by the relative peak area ratio of allytriethoxysilane/styrene. Styrene is a pyrolysis product of styrene-butadiene rubber. The results revealed an increase in reaction rate with increasing allytriethoxysilane content. Overall, pyrolysisgas chromatography/mass spectrometry can be used to estimate the reaction rate of the silica/silane system.

Since the discovery of carbon nanotube in 1991 1 , they have become one of the most active areas in the field of carbon nanotechnology owing their unique mechanical, electrical and thermal properties caused by the high aspect ratio, low diameter and metallic properties [2][3][4][5] .Carbon nanotubes are essentially rolled up graphene sheets that are sealed to form hollow tubes. Single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWNT) are cylindrical tubes with a single outer wall with diameters of only 1-2 nm. Multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWNT) have many layers of graphene wrapped around the core tube.The use of multi-wall carbon nanotubes is advantageous in nanocomposites because, unlike single-wall carbon nanotube in which two-thirds are semi-conducting and only one-third are conducting, each individual multi-wall carbon nanotubes is conducting because it contains a large number of concentric single-wall carbon nanotubes.Although the properties of multi-wall carbon nanotubes are excellent, they have not brought any remarkable improvements in the composite properties because of their poor dispersion due to the large surface area and weak interactions with polymer chains that causes large aggregates. As a result, the hysteresis and elongation as well as fatigue properties are decreased significantly 6 .