The Specific Gravity of Rubber in Hevea Latex

Abstract

Abstract Since my former communication on this subject several papers have appeared which form valuable contributions to the interesting problem of the actual specific gravity of the rubber particles in (original or preserved) Hevea latex. Rhodes recalculated his data, and came to an average figure of 0.9064 for the specific gravity of rubber in ammoniated latex, preserved during several weeks in the East; the rubber content being determined after coagulation by acetic acid in the usual way. Using the term proposed in my former paper, this may be called the specific gravity of “crepe rubber in preserved latex”, which may differ from that of “crepe rubber in original latex” by the effect of possible changes by the prolonged action of ammonia, by the settling out of the sludge (ammonium magnesium phosphate, mixed with protein-like substances), and other changes that occur in preserved latex. Leaving these unknown factors out of consideration, we have to take into account the fact that the rubber content was determined by acid coagulation, which means that a certain amount of serum substances, principally proteins, was precipitated with the rubber, and may have influenced its specific gravity. In my former communication I have shown that the specific gravity of “crepe rubber in latex” is found lower, the higher the rubber content of the original latex, i.e., the smaller the ratio of serum to rubber, and the smaller, therefore, the amount of acid-precipitated serum proteins in per cent of the rubber. Plotting, in this line of thought, Rhodes' figure in the graph (Figure 1), it will be seen that it corresponds to 45 grams rubber per 100 cc, or about 46.6 in percentage of weight, not abnormal for a preserved latex. Protein, precipitated with the rubber, has a still smaller effect in another figure given by Rhodes, namely, the specific gravity of rubber from a centrifuged cream of 56.7 per cent rubber content (acid coagulation). The corrected figure for the specific gravity of this rubber is given by Rhodes as 0.9011, which in Figure 1 corresponds to 55.5 grams of rubber per 100 cc, or about 58.5 per cent by weight; this is in reasonable agreement with the real figure of 56.7, taking into account the unavoidable errors of an extrapolation, such as in Figure 1.