Abstract:
Natural rubber (NR), generally, degrades when exposed to sunlight,
ozone, and oxygen due to the unsaturation of carbon-carbon double bonds within the
isoprene backbone. Hydrogenation reaction is a chemical modification method
commonly used to improve the polymer properties to desirable physical and chemical
properties. In the past, most hydrogenation reactions were carried out in solution form
of rubber. However, NR and certain synthetic elastomers are available in the form of
aqueous latex or emulsion, thus it is advantageous to hydrogenate the elastomer in the
latex phase. There are three possible ways to hydrogenate elastomers in latex form,
namely by homogeneous, heterogeneous and non-catalytic hydrogenations.
Thus, this research studied the homogeneous catalytic hydrogenation of
deproteinized natural rubber (DPNR) latex using palladium acetate (Pd(OAc)2) as a
catalyst, and investigated the effect of dry rubber content (DRC) of DPNR latex, ratio
(catalyst/rubber), hydrogen pressure, reaction temperature, and reaction time. The
optimum condition is achieved using DPNR latex at 10 DRC in the presence of ration
(catalyst/rubber) 0.0600 at 50°C under 3 MPa H2 pressure for 6 h.
For structural characterization, the obtained hydrogenated DPNR
(HDPNR) showed a characteristic band at 735 cm-1 with respect to -CH2- group of
saturated unit of HDPNR from Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopic
investigation. 1H-NMR spectrum showed the signal at 0.8 and 1.2 ppm, which are
assigned to -CH3 and -CH2- and the 13C-NMR showed the signal at 32.37, 32.74,
24.44 and 19.69, which are assigned to -Cαγ-,-CH-, -Cββ- and -CH3 carbon of saturated
unit, respectively. Thermal behaviors of the HDPNR characterized by Different
Scanning Carolimetry showed that the glass transition temperatures (Tg) of the
HDPNR at 75 percentage of hydrogenation did not appreciably affect Tg.
Consequently, the hydrogenated rubber product still had a high rubbery property