Reactions of Palm Oil-Based mcl-PHAs with Epoxidized Natural Rubber

摘要

A palm oil-based medium-chain-length polyhydroxyalkanoate (mcl-PHA) was allowed to react with epoxidized natural rubber (ENR). There was no noticeable reaction at ambient temperature for short reaction times. However, after 30 min at 170C, the mcl-PHA underwent thermal degradation to generate carboxylic terminal groups that attacked the epoxy groups of the ENR. Evidence of the ring-opening reaction was provided by both FTIR and 1H-NMR.