Use of Cellulose Ethers as Creaming Agents for Skim Natural Rubber Latex

摘要

Recovery of rubber from skim natural rubber latex was studied by using water soluble cellulose ether derivatives as creaming agents. The cellulose ethers used in this work were hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC), methyl cellulose (MC) and hydroxypropylmethyl cellulose (HPMC) with different viscosity. Creaming efficiency of the nonionic cellulose ethers was investigated by comparing traditional anionic creaming agents i.e., sodium alginate (SA) and carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC). It was found that the cellulose ethers could dramatically provide high rubber concentration in the cream phase, reducing the quantity of acid used to coagulate the cream fraction and remove the protein from the skim rubber more-so than the traditional creaming agents. The amount of recovered rubber obviously depended on the viscosity and concentration of the cellulose ethers used as expected. Here, 6 g/l to 10 g/l of HPC with 275 mP s of viscosity, 5 g/l to 7 g/l of MC with 525 mP s of viscosity and 5 g/l to 8 g/l of HPMC with 285 mP s of viscosity yielded over 90% of recovered rubber. The physical properties of skim rubber obtained by using various kinds of cellulose ethers were not obviously different.