Abstract
A study was made to clarify the features of the radiation vulcanization (RV) of natural rubber latex sensitized by acrylates (RV-A). The vulcanization rate of RV-A is higher compared with that of RV sensitized by carbon tetrachloride (RV-C). There are no difference in mechanical properties between RV-A and RV-C films. Tensile strength (TB) of RV-A films increase after air-aging at 100°C for 48 hours. On the contrary, TB of RV-C films and films prepared from conventional sulfur vulcanization method (V-S) decrease to half of the original ones at the same aging conditions. Leaching of the films with water affects aging properties of RV films. Leached RV-A and RV-C films lose almost original TB after air-aging at 70°C for 100 hours. While, V-S films shows fair resistance. When the aging is carried out at 150°C in the absence of air, leached RV films show higher resistance than leached and un-leached V-S films. It was concluded that RV-A films inherently have resistance against oxidative aging, but leaching reduces the resitance remarkably.
