RADIATION VULCANIZATION OF NATURAL RUBBER LATEX WITH MONOFUNCTIONAL ACRYLIC MONOMERS

Abstract

Natural rubber latexes were irradiated in the presence of monofunctional acrylates and methacrylates. Among several monomers, 2-ethylhexyl acrylate (2EHA) was found to exhibit high vulcanizing efficiency, although it contains only a single unsaturated bond. The maximum tensile strength of above 30MPa was obtained at 30kGy. A physical vulcanization model (entanglement) was proposed based on the measurement of the molecular weight distribution with a gel permeation chromatograph.