Effect of water soluble polymers on radiation vulcanized natural rubber latex films

Technological properties of radiation vulcanized latex after mixing with wa ter soluble polymers (WSP) such as poly(vinyl alcohol), poly(ethylene oxide ) etc. have been studied in detail. The properties of water soluble polymer incorporated vulcanizates depend mainly on the type of the polymer blended into the latex. Most of the polymers showed a drastic increase in tear str ength with polymer content and a reduction in tackiness of the vulcanized f ilms. Radiation processing increases the water soluble protein content in t he serum phase whereas that in the rubber phase decreases. Addition of wate r soluble polymer causes the fast leaching of soluble proteins from the dri ed films, which reduces the prolonged leaching commonly adopted for rubber vuleanizates. Aging properties of radiation vulcanized films incorporated w ith water soluble polymers are excellent. The thermal degradation behavior of radiation vulcanized films and that of water soluble polymer incorporate d films is almost the same. Transparency of the rubber films can be increas ed by the addition of suitable water soluble polymers.