| abstract |
Provided herein are novel tire tread compositions. The tire tread compositions include a rubber, a terpene-based resin and at least one filler. The terpene-based resin comprises one terpene-based monomer such as α-pinene, referred to as a hompolymer, or combinations of several terpene-based monomers selected from α-pinene, β-pinene, δ-3 carene, β-phellandrene and pyrolysates of α-pinene, β-pinene, δ-3 carene, δ-2 carene, turpentine, and combinations thereof. The terpene-based resin is generally substantially free of limonene. The terpene-based resin has a softening point of about 80° C. to about 130° C., a number average molecular weight (M n ) ranging from about 500 g/mol to about 775 g/mol and a glass transition temperature (T g ) of from about 38° C. to about 81° C. The tire tread composition having the terpene-based resin shows improvements of tan δ at 0°, wet grip and rolling resistance as compared with the compositions without the terpene-based resin or comprising alpha methyl styrene resin. |