Abstract:
The study of chemical properties, crosslink efficiency and gas permeability of poly (propylene terephthalate-co-lactic acid) copolymer affects to properties of epoxidized naturalrubber (ENR). Mechanical blending was carried out using Tin(II) octoate as a catalyst as the ratio of ENR:PPT-co PLA 4:1 2:1 and 1:1 by weight. Polymer blends were analyzed for their chemical properties by FTIR, crosslink efficiency by soxhlet extraction and gas permeability by gas permeability test. ENR 2:PPT-co-PLA 1 indicates not only the lowest epoxidized group from FTIR but also the lowest gas permeability. This may because of the epoxide group in epoxidized natural rubber completely reacted with copolymer. Therefore, this polymer blend (2:1) shows high density of crosslink structure, which represents the same trend as soxhlet extraction result.