Grafting of 2-hydroxyethtl methacrylate onto natural rubber(Thai)

Abstract

The graft copolymerization of 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) monomer onto natural rubber (NR) using potassium persulfate (K2 S2 O8 ) as an initiator was carried out by emulsion polymerization. The structures of polymer products were characterized by FT-IR spectroscopy and thermal properties were examined by TG/DTA. The effects of the initiator concentration and molar ratio of 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate to natural rubber on graft copolymerization were investigated. It was found that the highest level of grafted HEMA onto NR was obtained when the molar ratio of HEMA to NR was 95:5 mole% and the quantity of K2 S2 O8 was 0.05 mole%. In addition, thermal properties of graft copolymers are better than that of poly (2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (PHEMA) and NR. As expected, graft copolymers showed different solubility when compared with PHEMA and NR.