Studies of Natural Rubber Grafted with Acrylic Monomers

Abstract

In order to increase polarity and widen application of natural rubber, the natural rubber (NR) was modified by graft copolymerization with methyl methacrylate (MMA) and glycidyl methacrylate (GMA). The grafting reaction was carried out using emulsion polymerization at 40°C. Redox initiator was used to initiate polymerization. Weight percentage ratio of MMA to GMA was firstly fixed at 90/10 in order to study the effects of amount of initiator and monomer mixture-to-rubber ratio on grafting efficiency [GE(%)] and percentage conversion of monomer (%conversion). The graft copolymerization condition that showed the highest grafting efficiency was chosen to study the effect of MMA-to-GMA ratio. It was found that the highest grafting efficiency [GE(%) = 85.11] were obtained when 1 part of NR, 0.75 part of monomer mixture and 1 phr of initiator were used. 1H-NMR spectrum of the graft copolymer with grafting efficiency of 85.11% illustrated that main monomer grafted onto NR chain was MMA. However, there was a signal of GMA that attached onto the NR chain. The results from an adjustment of MMA-to-GMA ratio showed that grafting efficiency tended to decrease with increasing the amount of GMA. On the other hand, an adjustment of MMA-to-GMA ratio did not significantly affect %conversion.