Influence of l-quebrachitol on the properties of centrifuged natural rubber

Nonrubber components (NRCs) play an important role in the outstanding mechanical property of natural rubber (NR). The main inositol component of NRCs in natural rubber latex (NRL) is l-quebrachitol. In this study, the influence of l-quebrachitol on the properties of centrifuged natural rubber (CNR) was investigated. The NRL was centrifuged twice to remove most of the NRCs. After that, l-quebrachitol was added in the latex with per hundreds of rubber (phr) vary from 0% to 0.8%, and the vulcanized CNR were prepared. It is shown that the properties of vulcanized CNR were greatly changed, with T 90 reduced from 19 to 15 min, the tensile strength increased from 5 to 9 MPa, T g reduced by about 2°C, and the ability for strain-induced crystallization was enhanced. It was proved by FTIR results that l-quebrachitol was linked to the CNR crosslinking network with ester bond.