Properties of waterborne polyurethane films: effects of blend formulation with hydroxyl telechelic natural rubber and modified rubber seed oils

A series of new waterborne polyurethanes (WPUs) was successfully prepared by the prepolymer process from the bio-renewable sources hydroxytelechelic natural rubber (HTNR with MW 3000 g mol^?1) and hydroxylated rubber seed oil (HRSO), with DMPA fixed at 5.6 wt%. The effects of ratio of HTNR and HRSO (ranging from 1.00/0 to 0.10/0.90) and of hydroxyl value (OHV) of HRSO (200 or 270 mgKOH/g) on final properties were studied. It was found that the particle size of WPU increased significantly with both HRSO/HTNR ratio and OHV of HRSO. Chemical structure of the WPU films was confirmed by FT-IR. The water uptake, mechanical, dynamic mechanical properties and thermal stability of WPU film improved with both HRSO content and OHV of HRSO, while swelling in THF decreased. All these WPU films had similar Tg. This article reports novel green biobased WPU with promising applications as adhesive for shoe industries.

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Controlled degradation of natural rubber and modification of the obtained telechelic oligoisoprenes: Preliminary study of their potentiality as polyurethane foam precursors

Telechelic oligoisoprenes were successfully prepared by the selective controlled degradation of natural rubber, a renewable source, via epoxidation and cleavage reactions. The molar mass of the oligoisoprene product obtained depends on the degree of epoxidation of the starting materials. The chemically modified structures obtained via epoxidation, hydrogenation, and ring opening of epoxide groups were also studied, and the chemical structures and thermal properties of the oligoisoprene products were determined. Moreover, the preliminary study of preparation of hydroxytelechelic natural rubber (HTNR)‐based polyurethane foam was performed. A novel HTNR‐based polyurethane foam was successfully prepared and its thermal properties were investigated and the results indicated that the HTNR‐based polyurethane foam has a good low temperature flexibility. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2010     

Preparation and physico‐mechanical,thermal and acoustic properties of flexible polyurethane foams based on hydroxytelechelic natural rubber

Novel flexible polyurethane foams were successfully prepared from a renewable source, hydroxytelechelic natural rubber (HTNR) having different molecular weights (1000–3400 g mol^?1) and variation of epoxide contents (EHTNR, 0–35% epoxidation) by a one‐shot technique. The chemical and cell structures as well as physico‐mechanical, thermal, and acoustic properties were characterized and compared with commercial polyol analogs. The obtained HTNR based foams are open cell structures with cell dimensions between 0.38 and 0.47 mm. The HTNR1000 based foam exhibits better mechanical properties but lower elongation at break than those of commercial polyol analog. However, the HTNR3400 based foam shows the best elastic properties. In a series of EHTNR based foams, the tensile and compressive strengths show a tendency to increase with increasing epoxide content and amount of 1,4‐butanediol (BD). The HTNR based foams demonstrate better low temperature flexibility than that of the foam based on commercial polyol. Moreover, the HTNR based polyurethane foams was found to be an excellent absorber of acoustics. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2010     

Synthesis,characteristic, and properties of waterborne polyurethane based on natural rubber

A series of new waterborne polyurethanes (WPUs) was successfully prepared by prepolymer process from renewable source, hydroxytelechelic natural rubber (HTNR), with different amounts of DMPA (1.6–8.4 wt %), different molecular weights (1000–4000 g mol^?1), and different levels of epoxide (0%–20%) of HTNR. It was found that the urethane conversions of prepolymer were over 80% as calculated by FTIR technique. The resulting HTNR2000‐based WPUs exhibit a uniform particle size, which decreases from 420‐ to 83‐nm diameters with an increase in the amount of DMPA from 2.9 to 6.6 wt %. The particle size also decreases with an increase of soft segment or with an increase of epoxide content. They are well stable more over 6 months and without a significant difference in particle size compared with starting of them. Chemical structure of WPU films was confirmed by FTIR, ¹H‐NMR, and ¹³C‐NMR. Molecular weight and polydispersity were determined by SEC. In addition, thermal and water uptake properties were investigated. The experimental results reveal that the DMPA content, molecular weight of HTNR, and epoxide content play an important key role in water uptake and thermal properties. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012     

Rheological and curing behavior of reactive blending. II. Natural rubber‐g‐poly(methyl methacrylate)–cassava starch

Graft copolymers of natural rubber (NR) and methyl methacrylate (MMA) were prepared using cumene hydroperoxide and tetraethylene pentamine as redox initiators via the semibatch emulsion polymerization technique. Various molar percentage ratios of NR/MMA were studied in the grafting reaction (i.e., 95/5, 90/10, 80/20, 70/30, and 60/40). The graft copolymer with a 70/30 molar ratio was selected and used to prepare rubber blends with cassava starch. The starch was used at levels of 0, 20, 40, and 60 phr. Another set of rubber blends was prepared for comparison purposes. The NR‐g‐poly(MMA) (PMMA, 75 phr) was blended with 25 phr of NR air dried sheets (ADS) and a given level of the cassava starch. We found that the Mooney viscosity, shear stress, and shear viscosity increased with an increasing concentration of cassava starch. This may be attributed to the chemical interactions between the polar groups of the NR‐g‐PMMA and the cassava starch. The blends were later compounded using a compounding formulation according to ASTM D 3184‐89. A similar short delay onset of vulcanization (i.e., approximately 1 min) was observed for the whole set of compounds under study. However, different curing characteristics were observed for the blends of NR‐g‐PMMA–cassava starch and NR‐g‐PMMA–ADS–cassava starch. The NR‐g‐PMMA–cassava starch compounds exhibited two‐stage curing characteristics. The curing curve had a slight reversion at a testing time of approximately 8 min. The shear modulus then abruptly increased with an increasing testing time in the range of 20–60 min. The curing curves for NR‐g‐PMMA–ADS–cassava starch blends exhibited a single curing stage with a shear modulus that increased slightly with the testing time was increased from 20 to 60 min. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 89: 1453–1463, 2003