The paper systematically explores the synthesis of epoxidized natural rubber (acetate and hydroxyl group) grafted chitosan (ENR(AcOH)-g-CTS) at varied epoxidation levels and mole ratios. Initially, ENR(AcOH) underwent controlled epoxide ring cleavage through optimized reflux times tailored to specific epoxidation levels. The reflux optimization significantly influenced the efficiency of epoxide cleavage. Functional group substitutions (Ac and O-H) were confirmed via ATR-FTIR analysis, which also demonstrated enhanced thermal resistance in ENR(AcOH) (Tmax increased by ~10.08%, Tg increased by ~68%) following successful cleavage. Structural analysis via XRD revealed a more amorphous polymer structure, indicative of the formation of new chemical bonds and increased molecular ordering within amorphous regions of ENR. Secondly, ENR(AcOH) was grafted with CTS at varying epoxidation levels and mole ratios (1:1, 1:3, and 1:4). Among these, the 1:4 mole ratio yielded a flexible standing film with superior properties. ATR-FTIR analysis confirmed the presence of substituted ether linkages (1300–1000 cm⁻¹), with the linkages increasing proportionally with CTS content. The TG/DTG analysis of ENR(AcOH)-g-CTS exhibited two decomposition steps attributed to the presence of a polymer chain mixture. The incorporation of CTS showed good thermal resistance upon ENR(AcOH)-g-CTS. Overall, the synthesized ENR(AcOH)-g-CTS enhanced natural rubber applications, offering distinctive improvements in characteristics compared to ENR and CTS.
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Sharmizam et al. (2025) studied this question.
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