Siriwat Radabutra. Surface modification of vulcanized natural rubber and its adhesion to synthetic rubbers. Master's Degree(Polymer Science and Technology). Mahidol University. : Mahidol University, 2008.
Surface modification of vulcanized natural rubber and its adhesion to synthetic rubbers
Abstract:
Natural rubber (NR) possesses good mechanical properties, e.g. tensile strength, tear
strength, rebound resilience etc. However, its surface exhibits some undesired properties such
as stickiness and low surface energy that is difficult to bond with other materials. Surface
modification (e.g. halogenation, grafting) is a technique to overcome these poor properties
while advantages of NR are still retained.
In this research, chlorination of NR with various concentrations of trichloroisocyanuric
acid (TCI) (0.5 %wt, 2 %wt and 5 %wt) in methyl ethyl ketone (MEK), ethyl acetate (EA) and
acetone (ACE) was studied. The water contact angle of chlorinated NR (CNR) decreased
sharply from untreated sample to treatment time 0.5 min then slowly dropped to 30 min. ATRIR
showed chlorination and surface oxidation on NR surface. X-ray absorption spectroscopy
(XAS) demonstrated the degree of chlorination gradually increased with treatment time and
then slowly increased afterward. In addition, surface stiffness and roughness investigated by
Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) also increased with treatment time. At 2 and 5 %wt TCI, the
peel strength of CNR//NBR was highest at 0.5 to 1 min of treatment time approximately. This
clearly indicated that peel strength was not only governed by degree of chlorination, stiffness
and roughness but other parameter such as solubility parameter of NR-solvents also played an
important role. Chlorination of NR obviously increased the peel strength of CNR//CR but less
than CNR//NBR. Other surface modifications such as epoxidation, surface grafting by silane
coupling agent and plasma treatment on vulcanized NR sheets were also studied and discussed
in this work