EFFECT OF CHEMICAL PRE-TREATMENT ON THE CURE, MECHANICAL AND ABRASION PROPERTIES OF KENAF/NATURAL RUBBER GREEN COMPOSITES

摘要

Rubber materials have many advantages like low cost, excellent processibility, flexibility and resilience, and elasticity over metals. However they also have drawbacks like recycling, rubber waste, incineration, etc., causing environmental problems. Hence many researches focusing on recyclable rubber and naturally available rubber are increasingly interested in industries and academia. Natural rubber, which is available from Hevea Brasiliensis, commonly called 'rubber tree', is referred to as cis-1,4-polyisoprene. Most of the raw rubbers can be obtained as latex through a tapping process from Malaysia, Thailand and India. Natural rubber is composed of hydrocarbons (89.3~92.4 wt%), protein (2.5~3.5 wt%), and other ingredients (4.1~8.2 wt%). It has good mechanical properties and bending resistance but less thermal stability and low resistance to ozone, acids and oils.