pps proceeding - Abstract Preview
pps proceeding
Symposium: S04 - (General Session 4) Polymer Blends and Alloys
Oral Presentation
 
 

The Dynamic Vulcanization of Natural Rubber in The PLA/NR Blends

Kaeophimmueang Nittaya (1)*, Pattamaprom Cattaleeya (1), Uasopon Suvit (2), Prachayawasin Paveena (2)

(1) Department of Chemicals Engineering, Faculty of Engineering Thammasat University - Pathumtani - Thailand, (2) National Metal and Materials Technology Center - Pathumtani - Thailand

Blending polylactide (PLA) with natural rubber has been investigated to improve toughness PLA. However, some applications that need more than one heating process have found agglomeration problem of NR in PLA matrix during reheating. The dynamic vulcanization of NR is of interest here to stabilize the NR phase in the PLA/NR blends. Therefore, in this research, we are interested in dynamic vulcanization of NR during melt blending by using different sulfur curing systems. The study has focused on the effects of two sulfur systems including the efficient vulcanization (EV) and conventional vulcanization (CV) systems on the properties of the blends. The samples were carried out by using Barbender internal mixer. The mechanical property of the blends was investigated by an izod impact test. The thermal property was evaluated by a differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and a scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used for morphology characterization. It was found that CV system at 2.5phr of sulfur provided the best impact resistance at 134.4 J/m while EV system gave the poorest impact results. In DSC results, CV system at 2.5phr of sulfur also provided the highest %crystallinity(Xc) of PLA component of 18.42%.