Effects of dynamic vulcanization on properties of polypropylene/natural rubber/thermoplastic starch blends

Abstract

The effects of thermoplastic starch (TPS) loading on polypropylene (PP)/natural rubber (NR) blend vulcanized with N, N’-m-phenylene bismaleimide (HVA-2) were investigated. Thermoplastic starch ratios was varied at 5%,10%,20% and 30% weight percentage in order to prepare partial bio-products of PP/NR blends. The study has focused on the thermoplastic starch loading and blend’s modification on the mechanical properties, morphology and biodegradable properties of PP/NR blends. The study showed that the tensile properties of the PP/NR blends were deteriorated with increasing in TPS content. The dynamic vulcanization by using HVA-2 crosslinker were applied on the blends in order to compensate the deterioration properties caused by incorporation of TPS. According to the results, the HVA-2 crosslinker showed that increased in tensile properties as well as better morphology analysis as compared to unvulcanized counterparts. On top of that, the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) studied also found that the interfacial adhesion and dispersion of TPS was improved upon HVA-2 vulcanized in PP/NR blends. Water absorption and soil burial found that HVA-2 crosslinker delayed the biodegradability properties to PP/NR/TPS blends. Finally, it can be concluded that PP/NR/TPS with HVA-2 crosslinker resulted in better properties compared to PP/NR/TPS. v