Composite of a vulcanizable rubber composition and cured rubber product

A composite of a vulcanizable composition selected from a group consisting of natural rubbers, synthetic rubbers and thermoplastic elastomers and having a least one metal reinforcement element embedded therein, wherein the metal reinforcement element has a coating of a polymer deposited from a solution and compatible with and co-polymerizable with said vulcanizable composition, and bearing functional groups covalently bonding to the metal surface of said at least one reinforcement element, wherein the functional groups are selected from the group consisting of:

• thiol groups;
• silanes, SiHCl2, —SiH2Cl′, —Si(Cl)3, SiHBr2, —SiH2Br, —SiBr3, —Si(R′(Cl)2), —Si(OR′)3—Si(R′(OR′)2), wherein R′ is an alkyl selected from the groups consisting of methyl, ethyl, and propyl;
• amines;
• —PO3H2, —SO2H;
• the acid anhydride group of —PO3H2 and —SO2H;
• the acid chloride group of —PO3H2 and —SO2H;
• organometallic groups of the formula —M(OR′)n and —M(Cl′)n, wherein M is a metal selected from the group consisting of Al, Sn, B, Ti, and V;
• and n is the number of ligands corresponding to the metal M;
• phthalocyanin groups;
• and;
• phthalonitril groups;
• wherein the functional groups are carried as terminal groups, carried along the polymer backbone, or carried as part of side chains, and wherein said polymer is bound to said metal surface by an adhesion promotor that is a bifunctional compound of the general formula (I)
• X−(R)n−(Ar)1−(R)m−Y (I)
• with X representing a group capable of reacting covalently at the metal surface,
• R representing an organic spacer chain;
• Ar representing an aromatic system,
• Y representing a group capable of forming covalent bonds to the functional groups of said coating, and 0≦n, m≦16, 0≦1≦6, and n+m+1≠0.