Carbon black is produced by the thermal decomposition method or the partial combustion method in a limited supply of air using carbocenaous feedstock. Carbon black products are direct descendants of earlier “lamp blacks,” a black pigment produced and used by various civilizations to create rock paintings more than 3,000 years ago. For a long time, black pigment was obtained by charring organic materials such as wood or bone or collecting soot from burning oils in wick lamps. These early blacks were not very pure and differed greatly in their chemical composition from present-day carbon blacks, which are almost pure carbon.

Feedstock base for all carbon blacks are hydrocarbons like aromatic oils based on coal tar or crude oil. Main coal tar distillate for carbon black production is for example anthracene oil. Both groups have a high content of aromatic hydrocarbons in common. Further feedstocks are heavy petroleum fraction, distillation residues form oil refineries, and different oil mixtures. Over feedstocks that can also be used for the production of carbon black are natural gas, naphtha, gas oil and acetylene and vegetal matter.  

Carbon black used to be called "soot" in the west and "shouen" in the east of the United States, where plant production started in 1740's. Because of the production method used, it was then called "lampblack”. In the 1870's, products manufactured from natural gas were sold under the name “carbon black”. 

Made in specially designed reactors, operating at internal temperatures in the range of 2600° to 3600°F, different grades of carbon black can be produced with varying aggregate size and structure. As the characteristics of carbon black vary depending on the manufacturing process, carbon black is classified according to the process by which it is made, with subtypes acetylene black, channel black, gas black, furnace black, lamp black and thermal black. Above 98% of the world’s annual carbon black production is covered by the furnace black process. Carbon black produced with this process is called “furnace black”, distinguishing it from carbon black, which is manufactured with other processes.

Carbon black is not the undesired by-product soot, which is known from chimneys or exhausts, from which it is dissimilar in its much higher surface-area-to-volume ratio and significantly lower (negligible and non-bioavailable) polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) content. 

Chemically, carbon black is a colloidal form of elemental carbon consisting of 95 to 99% carbon—with minimal quantities of oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen—in the form of colloidal particles, a form of paracrystalline carbon that has a high surface-area-to-volume ratio, albeit lower than that of activated carbon. Its physical appearance is that of a black, finely divided pellet or powder. 

Carbon black is an industrial produced raw material with clearly defined properties. The main properties of carbon black are primary particle size and particle size distribution, particle structure, specific surface area and surface chemistry, conductivity and color.

Carbon black is used as a filler or modifyer in the manufacture of rubbers, plastics, paints and pigments. Its main use is in the rubber industry as a reinforcement and filler. The addition of carbon black to rubber improves the wear resistance of tires and other properties. The  stability against UV radiation is also enhanced since the black pigment blocks light transmission. The content of carbon black is the reason why so many rubber products are black. Carbon black in rubbers and plastics not only makes the substance black, but it also make them UV stable and heat conducting: taking heat away from the tread and thus producing less static electricity. Practically all rubber products where tensile and abrasion wear properties are important use carbon black as a reinforcing material. Rubber such as styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) may be blended with up to 50 percent by weight (wt %) of carbon black to improve its tensile strength and wear resistance. 

References

1. D. Alwarid, 2022-2023 Lecture, Properties of Petroleum Products, 3^rd Stage, Carbon Black, Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Al-Mustaqbal University College, Department of Chemical Engineering and petroleum Industrials.
2. CEERISK, Carbon black: the processes behind the product.
3. MITSUBISHI CHEMICAL, Manufacturing Process of Carbon Black.
4. Wikipedia, Carbon Black.
5. International Carbon Black Association, What is Carbon Black. 
6. PENTACARBON, CARBON BLACK WIKI.