Natural rubber–isotactic polypropylene thermoplastic blends

Thermoplastic elastomers, prepared by melt blending of natural rubber (NR) and isotactic polypropylene (PP) through a dynamic vulcanization technique, were developed during the later 1970s. However, they have certain drawbacks due to thermal degradation and higher molecular weight of NR. In the study reported here, NR was masticated to different levels prior its addition to isotactic polypropylene to improve the flow properties and to reduce the incompatibility resulting from molecular weight mismatch of NR/PP thermoplastic blends. Mixing energy curves of uncrosslinked blends and those of dynamically vulcanized blends crosslinked using different cure systems were compared. The mixing energy curves of blends containing NR of different molecular weight (M _n) and two grades of PP (injection and film grades) were also compared. Technological and processing properties of the dynamically vulcanized (sulphur and peroxide cure systems) and unvulcanized blends were compared with those of the samples containing unmasticated NR. The results indicated that a number average molecular weight in the range 4 × 10⁵ for NR increased the procoessability without significantly affecting the technological properties of NR/PP thermoplastic blends. Among the three cure systems studied Luperox 101 and dicumyl peroxide gave better technological properties than the sulphur‐cured samples. Two antioxidants, viz. quinoline (TDQ) and imidazole (MBI) type, were tried in NR/PP blends. It was found that TDQ imparts better aging resistance compared to MBI. The improvement in processability due to the reduction in molecular weight of natural rubber by mastication is more noticeable in the case of peroxide vulcanized blends compared to sulphur vulcanized samples. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 92: 2063–2068, 2004