Natural Rubber-Acrylate IPNs

The History of Natural Rubber-Acrylate Blends and IPNs... 

Normally, the morphological properties of natural rubber-acrylate blends and IPNs are firstly investigated to identify their compatibilities. Several techniques. 

Volume 1 of this book is comprised of 25 chapters, and discusses the different types of natural rubber based blends and IPNs. The first seven chapters discuss the general aspects of natural rubber blends like their miscibility, manufacturing methods, production and morphology development. The next ten chapters describe exclusively the properties of natural rubber blends with different polymers like thermoplastic, acrylic plastic, block or graft copolymers, etc. Chapter 18 deals entirely with clay reinforcement in natural rubber blends. Chapters 19 to 23 explain the major techniques used for characterizing various natural rubber based blends. The final two chapters give a brief explanation of life cycle analysis and the application of natural rubber based blends and IPNs. 

Blends and IPNs of Natural Rubber with Acrylic Plastics... 

Natural rubber blends have not been substantially limited to only reactive blends, such as those produced by grafting, epoxidation and halogenation studies. IPNs are one choice for modification of the natural rubber to increase the compatibility between natural rubber and acrylate polymers. Full IPNs of natural rubber and acrylate polymers are defined as a polymer blend having a crosslinked polymerization of each polymer type in their networks. Semi-IPNs, in contrast, are those in which only one type of polymeric component, mostly acrylate polymer, is crosslinked. The polymerization of IPNs would be a potential method for the modification of natural rubber. ... 

Thus, these acrylate polymers are hard and brittle plastics that can have a direct effect on the mechanical properties in both the natural rubber blends and IPNs. They show an increase in modulus, tensile strength, tear strength, hardness and impact energy, but a decrease in elongation at break. 

Furthermore, the rubber can improve other characteristics such as hydro-philicity and adhesion, leading to wider applications. Many techniques, i.e. morphological, mechanical, thermal, rheological and dielectric studies can be used to investigate the properties of natural rubber blends and IPNs with dilferent types of acrylate polymers. Due to the interesting properties of natural rubber blends and IPNs with acrylate polymers, they can reach applications in many industrial fields such as automotive, household appliances, medical devices, electrical cables, and headphone cables. 

---