Adun Nimpaiboon

Improvement of Filler-Rubber Interaction by Grafting of Acrylamide onto Saponified Natural Rubber under Ultraviolet Radiation as a Continuous Process

Silica and carbon black have been widely used as the main reinforcing fillers for improving the properties of natural rubber (NR). In a silica-filled rubber compound, it is known that the low compatibility between NR and silica affects the mechanical properties of rubber products. In order to overcome this drawback, the functionalized saponified NR (FSPNR) was carried out by grafting acrylamide (AM) onto the saponified NR (SPNR) under UV radiation as a continuous process. An increasing in the bound rubber content and Mooney viscosity was found as an increasing AM content. Storage modulus at low strain amplitude of the silica-filled FSPNR was lower than that of the raw NR. In addition, SEM micrographs showed the good dispersion of silica in FSPNR. These confirmatory evidences indicate the improvement of rubber-filler interaction and the reduction of filler-filler interaction by functionalization under UV radiation.

Effect of Particle Sizes on Film Formation Behavior of Hevea brasiliensis Natural Rubber Latex

Natural Rubber (NR) latex obtained from Hevea brasiliensis contains a wide particle size distribution. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of small rubber particles (SRP) and large rubber particles (LRP) on the characteristics of film formation. The rubber particle with different mean diameters can be separated by centrifugation at various speeds to prepare SRP and LRP latex. The average size of SRP and LRP were characterized by light scattering technique to show that the size of SRP was in the range of 0.20 μm, while that of LRP was larger with the wide distribution. SRP and LRP latex were dried at room temperature to study the film formation behaviors. The results showed that the film compaction time increased with increasing the particle size of NR. Furthermore, the rubber film were aged at room temperature for 3 weeks in order to observe the surface morphology using atomic forced microscopy (AFM) by tapping mode. The AFM images showed that SRP readily formed a coalescence film, while LRP showed individual particles on the surface of film at 24 h of storage time. The surface of both SRP and LRP films was smoother after storage. However, LRP film still showed individual particles on the surface after 3 weeks of storage time.

Investigating the Mechanistic and Structural Role of Lipid Hydrolysis in the Stabilization of Ammonia-Preserved Hevea Rubber Latex

The stabilization mechanism of natural rubber (NR) latex from Hevea brasiliensis was studied to investigate the components involved in base-catalyzed ester hydrolysis, namely, hydrolyzable lipids, ammonia, and the products responsible for the desired phenomenon observed in ammonia-preserved NR latex. Latex stability is generally thought to come from a rubber particle (RP) dispersion in the serum, which is encouraged by negatively charged species distributed on the RP surface. The mechanical stability time (MST) and zeta potential were measured to monitor field latices preserved in high (FNR-HA) and low ammonia (FNR-LA) contents as well as that with the ester-containing components removed (saponified NR) at different storage times. Amounts of carboxylates of free fatty acids (FFAs), which were released by the transformation and also hypothesized to be responsible for the like-charge repulsion of RPs, were measured as the higher fatty acid (HFA) number and corroborated by confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) both qualitatively and quantitatively. The lipids and their FFA products interact differently with Nile red, which is a lipid-selective and polarity-sensitive fluorophore, and consequently re-emit characteristically. The results were confirmed by conventional ester content determination utilizing different solvent extraction systems to reveal that the lipids hydrolyzed to provide negatively charged fatty acid species were mainly the polar lipids (glycolipids and phospholipids) at the RP membrane but not those directly linked to the rubber molecule and, to a certain extent, those suspended in the serum. From new findings disclosed herein together with those already reported, a new model for the Hevea rubber particle in the latex form is proposed.

More Values of L-Quebrachitol from Skim Natural Rubber Latex

Natural rubber (NR) latex collected from Hevea brasiliensis rubber tree exists as a colloidal suspension with 30% dry rubber content (DRC). For convenient use and transportation, the latex is concentrated by centrifugation process. Through this process, the 60% DRC concentrated NR latex and 5% DRC skim latex as a by-product were produced. After using acid coagulation of skim latex, the skim rubber is obtained to use as a low-grade application due to high amount of non-rubber components as impurities. The water portion remaining after the coagulation of skim rubber consists of various water-soluble materials such as sugars, lipids, proteins and minerals, which can cause the water pollution if serum is directly discharged into the environment without proper treatment. However, 1.5% of L-quebrachitol was found in skim latex. It can be used in many applications such as a starting material for the synthesis of bioactive materials and inositol pharmacy. Thus, this work is an attempt to investigate the most effective extraction method of L-quebrachitol from skim latex. It was found that the appropriate solvent for extraction L-quebrachitol at high temperature and for recrystallization at low temperature is ethanol. The yield of L-quebrachitol about 2-3% by weight of solid serum was obtained. Moreover, a sweetness and antibacterial activity were also studied for its further applications. It was found that the sweetness of L-quebrachitol was twice than that of sucrose. No antibacterial activity of L-quebrachitol against Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus mutans was found.

Functionalization of Styrene-Butadiene Rubber and Skim Latex by Photo-Catalytic Reaction Using Nanometric TiO2 Film as a Photocatalyst

Functionalization of rubber latex is used to improve some weak properties. One method of functionalization is chemical modification by a photo-catalytic reaction. In this work, the functionalization of styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) and skim latex were carried out under UV irradiation in the presence of TiO2 film, which was double spin-coated on a glass petri-dish, followed by calcination at 550°C. The structural characterization of functionalized rubber latex was analyzed by FTIR and NMR techniques. In the case of SBR latex, the hydroxyl group was observed after exposure to 80W of UV irradiation in the presence of H2O2 at concentration of 20% by weight of dry rubber. However, the gel formation derived from cross-linking as a side reaction obstructed the further characterization of microstructure and limited the applications of latex and solid rubber. In the case of skim latex, the effect of pH, H2O2 concentration and UV irradiation time were studied. It was found that the functionalization was successful after exposure to low power of UV irradiation for 1 h in the presence of H2O2 at concentration of 5-10% by weight of dry rubber. The weight-average molecular-weight (Mw) slightly decreased from 2x106 to 1x106 g/mol.

Role of Gel Content on the Structural Changes of Masticated Natural Rubber

In this study, natural rubber (NR) containing various amounts of gel was prepared by accelerated storage hardening to investigate the role of gel content on the structural changes of masticated NR. The NR samples containing various amounts of gel were subjected to mastication at various times, and subsequently characterized for the change of gel content, molecular weight, and Mooney viscosity to evaluate the role of gel content on these parameters. Furthermore, an oscillatory shear experiment using a strain sweep test was applied in this study to elucidate the structural changes of rubber samples after mastication. The results revealed that the Mooney viscosity was related to the percentage of gel fraction that has been proven to be the result of the interactions of proteins and phospholipids at the chain ends. The gel fraction of NR can be decomposed into a sol fraction by shear force during mastication and the mastication time for decomposition of gel relates to the initial gel content of the rubber. After mastication for 15 min, although the gel fraction of NR can be decomposed to ~0% w/w, the interactions of proteins and phospholipids at the chain ends still existed, and their quantities is corresponded to the gel content of raw rubber.