Preparation of hydrogenated natural rubber with nanomatrix structure

Hydrogenated deproteinized natural rubber (HDPNR) with nanomatrix structure was prepared through graft-copolymerization of acrylonitrile and styrene onto HDPNR particle in latex stage. Structural characterization of the resulting materials through nuclear magnetic resonance and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy confirmed that acrylonitrile and styrene were grafted onto HDPNR. The weather resistance, thermal properties, mechanical properties, storage modulus, and morphology of the resulting materials were investigated in comparison with those of HDPNR. The obtained result indicated that the graft-copolymerization of HDPNR with hydrogenation conversion of 60 mol% attained the highest grafting efficiency. Thermal resistance and storage modulus of HDPNR-graft-poly (styrene-co-acrylonitrile) (HDPNR-g-SAN) were superior compared with those of HDPNR and deproteinized natural rubber. This was attributed to the nanomatrix formed in HDPNR-g-SAN, which was confirmed through a transmission electron microscope. Ribbed smoked sheet natural rubber exhibited the outstanding mechanical properties and weather resistance when it was mixed with HDPNR-g-SAN.